Hunted
by The Awesome Frost Ninja
Summary: After receiving a distress beacon, the paladins of Voltron go to investigate the planet of Zilate as all the inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared. However, what they find is far more sinister. And it doesn't help that Keith and Lance get drawn right into the middle of it. Now it's up to the red and blue paladins to keep each other alive.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own VLD**

 **A/N: Hey guys, this my first Voltron fanfic. Yay. I hope you guys find some enjoy through this fic, it'll only probably be 3-4 chapters roughly.**

 **ALSO HEADS UP: This fanfic will have some Keith/Lance undertones, but I'm writing it in a way that can be interpreted as you please. I do ship Klance, but I believe that some more proper bonding development is needed before they get together, hence why this fic was born.**

 **Onwards we go! Hope you guys enjoy the first chapter!**

* * *

It was one of those rare occasions that things were quiet in the Castle of Lions. Well, it was as quiet as it could get.

The paladins had just finished training against the gladiator when Lance and Keith were suddenly an inch away from each other bickering. Normally was hard to tell who started it and how it escalated, but after a surprisingly successful simulation, Lance started throwing insults at Keith.

The blue and red paladins were arguing a lot recently, particularly after training sessions. It's not like that fact itself was surprising and it wasn't like they still couldn't form Voltron. If anything it just got tedious to watch.

Shiro had to step between the two, becoming the mediator. In the meanwhile, Pidge and Hunk wished they had popcorn to enjoy the show.

"Knock it off guys. We're all a team here."

Lance backed off, but continued to have a scowl on his face.

"Are we now? Maybe you should tell him that."

Keith narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Lance opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly the sirens were going off. Allura had a new mission for them. After everyone had gathered unto the control deck, Keith and Lance stood on opposite sides to one another.

Coran began explaining.

"We've received a distress beacon from the planet Zilate." Coran pulled up a hologram of the planet. "This is the planet Zilate. The planet itself is filled with trees with wood like the quality of metal. And the dirt is extremely dense. But they were better known for their Zilatian crystals. The crystals are similar to the ones on Balmera, but they're much smaller. I recall meeting some Zilatians on a few occasions. They're a quite peaceful race." Coran pulled up a hologram of the race. They looked like humanoid lizards with long, muscular arms that dragged along beside them.

Allura frowned.

"However, our scanners aren't picking up any signs of life on the planet."

"The galra?" Shiro asked. It had been all their assumptions. Coran exchanged a glance with the princess and then hesitantly answered.

"We're not actually sure."

Pidge cocked her head to the side.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Coran continued, "The distress signal was only sent out a few days ago. Even if it were the galra, there should be, well, something."

Allura straightened up with a new look of determination.

"Paladins, I need you to scout the planet for any survivors that the scanners may have missed. But I implore you to be careful. Something about this doesn't feel right. Coran and I will stay here in orbit ready for an extraction if any of you should need one."

Shiro nodded.

"Understood. Let's move."

* * *

When they arrived, the scanners could didn't pick up traces of life. It was just like Allura had said. Flying in their lions, they saw the trail of the tree like terrain been bent and snapped. The tree-like terrain looked as if a giant had angrily had ran through the planet.

 _"What could have done this?"_ Pidge's voice was barely heard through the communicator.

No one knew how to answer that question. The fact that Coran had said the trees were like metal just made the whole situation more eerie.

 _"Doesn't anyone think it's strange that there are no bodies despite the scanners not picking up life?"_ It was a morbid question, and it had come from Hunk of all people, but he did raise an important point.

Shiro looked around suspiciously before a small glowing blinking of his navigating screen of his lion.

"Hey, I'm getting something. It's in the west."

Keith glanced down at his screen, he saw what Shiro had been talking about, but he also picked up on something else.

 _"I'm getting a signal too, but it's in the east."_

Shiro took another look. "I see it. They're not too far from each other. We ought to cover more ground. We're splitting into two groups, but keep communications on at all times!"

Allura's voice came on over their communicators.

 _"Shiro is right. There still may be danger."_

Lance's voice came over the comm.

 _"Hey princess, there is no need to worry, dangers my middle name."_

A light groan of annoyance was heard from Pidge and Hunk, whilst Keith silently rolled his eyes.

"Lance. You and Keith check out the signal in the east. Pidge, Hunk and I will check the signal in the west." Shiro stated.

 _"Me and the mullet-head? Oh yeah, because that's a GOOD idea."_ Lance's words reeked of sarcasm.

Keith immediately complained.

 _"What!? Shiro! Why am I stuck with him!?"_

"Because I said so!" Shiro sounded like a parent scolding his toddler children (he kind of was). A heavy sigh followed. "Come on, like I said earlier, we're all a team here. Please just do what I ask."

 _"Fine."_ Lance groaned.

He switched from the open channel to the enclosed channel from his communicator so he was only heard by the red paladin. The enclosed channel only limited who they spoke to, so the other paladins could still contact him if they needed to.

"You ready, _Keith_?" Lance put a mocking emphasis on Keith's name.

Turning to the enclosed channel soon after Lance, Keith's smirk could be heard over the communicator.

"I should say the same thing, _cargo pilot_."

* * *

Eventually Lance and Keith had run out of names to call each other. The pair flew in silence. The tension of earlier that day lingered.

Keith suddenly piped in.

"There's nothing out here. We should go back."

Lance was about to for once agree, but his scanner began beeping.

"Wait, Blue's picking something up. There's something in a village of some sort up ahead," glancing up from the map schematics, he could see buildings in the distance. The sudden thought of Allura giving him praise for finding any missing inhabitants made a grin appear on his face. "We should check it out."

Keith had seen it on Red's scanner, but something just wasn't right with it. Keith was chosen to be the red paladin for his instinct and temperament (at least according to Allura). And his instincts were telling him that something was off about the village.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Allura said that the planets inhabitants should be friendly. Or what," Lance's smirk could be heard through the communicator. "Are you scared?"

"I'm not scared!" Keith snapped back, now obviously fired up. He wasn't going to back down from this new challenge.

"I'll race you there." Lance transferred power to the thrusters, gaining a large head start in front.

Keith didn't even notice the smile growing on his face.

"You're on!" It only took a few moments for Keith to catch up to Lance. "You think you can keep up?"

As if to mirror Keith's expression, an excited grin began to spread on the blue paladin's face.

"Bring it!"

* * *

The longer they followed the signal, the more and more they saw was destroyed nature. Many of the trees were knocked down.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Hunk said, shuddering ever so slightly.

Shiro felt it too. Allura had warned them that something felt amiss, but it didn't give him any comfort. If anything it made more anxious.

"Pidge, are you getting anything?"

"Up ahead there looks like there's some sort of station. We should land and check it out."

Landing the lions out of sight, they walked for a good while before they spotted what the scanner had been picking up.

It was small building and definitely looked galran. The three paladins can't say that they were surprised to find that the galra were involved.

"Follow my lead and keep your guard up." Shiro activated his arm. Pidge and Hunk followed behind Shiro, activating their own bayards.

The three paladins quietly crept around in the three roomed building. There was not a single galra in sight. Within the building there were scorched markings from lasers, chairs had been knocked over, and what looked to be webs was everywhere.

"It's empty." Shiro confusedly looked around, deactivating his arm.

Pidge brought up a scanner next to what looked to be a generator.

"Well I found what the scanner must have been picking up." Pidge's scanner began to beep wildly. "Woah. The power source of this generator is off the charts. It's obviously built to last, but it looks pretty unstable."

"Well obviously something creepy happened here. Those webs look pretty new." Hunk looked around, spotting some sort of surveillance camera in the corner of the room. "Look."

"Maybe that'll help shed some light." Pidge immediately approached the computer hub and began hacking into the system. "Shiro, hand on the handprint please."

Complying, he placed his robot-prosthetic hand over the panel. Pidge expertly got into the system within a few short minutes (or a few ticks if they were going by Altean time).

"This is the most recent feed. It was two days ago." Pidge began to play through the footage.

The footage itself had broken up audio. Shiro was the first to notice.

"Pidge, what's wrong with the audio?"

"The files seem to be corrupt. I'll download them unto my system where I'll be able to clean it up."

As Pidge began to download the files, Hunk immediately pointed back to the camera feed.

"What is that!?"

Within the footage, a sort of black mass invaded the control centre. It was moving so much, it was hard to determine what it was. It seemed to be some sort of creature. The three galra in the room attempted to shoot at it, but it bounced off of it. Whatever creature it was, it didn't even seem to phase it.

Suddenly the footage became filled with static and shut off. It was only then that the three noticed the generator was almost jumping off the floor.

"It's going to blow!" Hunk warned. The generator began to give off a sickening glow.

Shiro sprang into action.

"Everyone, get down!"

Hunk dived out of the way as Shiro immediately pulled Pidge to the ground away from the generator, using his own body as a shield to protect her.

The generator blew up, releasing a massive electromagnetic type of pulse through the air, shaking the walls around them. The metal-like debris flew straight into the walls, embedded deeply within them. It was a moment before they finally all got up from the ground, surprised to find they were all unscathed.

"Is everyone all right?" Hunk asked.

Shiro nodded to then ask, "What was that?"

"It felt like some sort of pulse." Hunk thought aloud.

"Let's find out." Pidge immediately tried to access the system again. "No. No. No. No."

"What's going on?" Shiro looked over at Pidge's holopad.

"Well whatever it was, it's messing with everything! Everything is down." Pidge pulled out her scanner. "My scanner is down."

Hunk had a look over as well. "It had to have been something like an electromagnetic pulse."

In their communicators, something sparked alive.

 _"Shir-…..wha-…..goi-….on-…"_

Shiro attempted to reply.

"Allura, can you hear us?"

He was only met with static.

"Hunk, how long do you think this will last?"

"I have no clue. Pidge and I can try resetting everything manually and reboot the connective settings. It'll be a while, but it might work," Hunk eyebrows furrowed, "But the real question is how far did that pulse travel?"

Pidge shrugged. "I can't say that I'm exactly sure, but our tech is down."

Hunk's eyes widened as the memory of the footage filled his thoughts.

"Wait, if the generator was what the scanner was picking up for us then what were Lance and Keith picking up on?"

The sudden realisation struck both Shiro and Pidge hard. Knowing that it now may have pointless, Shiro shouted into his communicator.

"Lance! Keith! Come in! Get out of there!"

* * *

Long story cut short, Lance lost the race. Apparently, Keith had just gotten lucky; or rather that's what Lance had repeated multiple times as they landed their lions, hiding them within the trees. The two paladins exited their lions and approached the village on foot.

Upon seeing up close, the two exchanged an unsure glance. The village looked similar to the Erusian's village in some ways. The houses were made out of what the two suspected was mud and stone with thick tree leaves for the rooftops. But that is not what disturbed the two.

It was the fact that village was completely deserted. It looked like all the inhabitants had just dropped everything and left. Nothing looked like it had been raided nor did it seem that any inhabitants were killed. It was strange; it was as if they had vanished without a trace.

Lance and Keith both went to inspect two different neighbouring houses. Keith poked his head inside. A few bowls were knocked down to the ground, but nothing looked too strange.

A stray doll was lying on the floor. Keith gently picked it up. It looked like a tinier and cuter version of the Zilatian people. Keith had no doubt that the doll belonged to a child from the village. Obviously they all just didn't leave the planet. And if they did surely if they had, the child would have been able to bring it's doll. It just didn't make any sense.

"Hey Keith! Check this out!"

Following Lance's voice into the house next door, Keith's eyes widened slightly at the sight. In the mud of the ground of the house, it showed a trail. It was as if someone was dragged out, desperately trying to cling to the ground in an attempt to not be taken.

"This wasn't of their own free will," Lance looked over at Keith, immediately noticed the doll he was holding and laughed. "Well, now the hair makes sense, Keith, you big softie."

Keith had honestly forgotten he had been still holding it until Lance pointed it out. Keith rolled his eyes as a response. Every time that Keith thought that the bickering had stopped, Lance would say or do something to rile him up.

"Are you incapable of being serious for more than three seconds?"

"Dude, you're the one holding a doll and you're telling me to be serious?" Lance scoffed.

Keith carefully put it down on a stone table near the door and left the house, Lance eventually followed.

"We should probably get out of here and re-group with the others." Keith said, suspiciously eyeing the empty village around them.

Before Lance could reply, the two felt a sort of pulse pass by them. It disappeared as quickly as it came.

"That was…weird." Lance said, suddenly noticing a small static sound coming from his communicator.

"Are you hearing that too?" Keith asked, focusing on the static sound. "That's not right."

Lance looked over to Keith. Both of them knew that something was wrong. Keith attempted to use the communicator.

"Shiro? Can you hear me?"

A small static feed came on their communicators. It was hard to tell what was being said, but the voice was distinctly Shiro's.

 _"La-…..eith-…com-…in-…..Ge -…out-…of-…ther-"_

Even with trying to focus on Shiro's voice, Keith's instincts still managed to kick in. He immediately activated his bayard, twisting around his sword instantly connected with something large and black.

Taking a moment to realise what was happening, Lance immediately activated his bayard in time to shoot at the incoming enemies, he expected galra soldiers, what he didn't expect was a massive creature looming over him and Keith. It had to be at least twenty feet tall.

If it looked like anything, it looked like a gigantic spider. With only the brief scan that Lance was giving it, he counted twelve legs, prickled and thick. It had four piercingly large eyes; all four had the swirling of yellow and red within the iris. It had a long torso, it moved like it had no spine. It's head similar to that of a horse. It looked like something straight out of a nightmare.

How did they not hear or see it?

Keith dug into the black leg with his blade, but he barely made a cut. It's skin was course and rough, it was like a thick layer of armour.

It let a demonic kind of cry. It was like a mix of gargling water in reverse, along with the deep yet feminine voice screaming. The creature flung Keith from it's leg. Keith had been thrown with such force that he slammed into one of the mud and stone houses in the village, the make-shift building collapsed on top of him.

"Keith!"

Lance immediately sprang into action and began shooting at the creature, drawing it's attention away from Keith. The blasts barely fazed the beast, but it was a good distraction.

The creature charged at Lance, forcing him to jump out of the way of it's multiple legs and flailing body. The creature's speed was fast paced and rabid. Shooting at it seemed useless, but it was all Lance could do.

One of the legs slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. On his back, Lance kept his gun up as the creature seemed to push out a sort of stinger from one of the front legs. The stinger came out of it's hidden region like a bee, but it looked like a single large fang of a snake.

Lance rolled to his left, avoiding the stingers. The legs thrust back up and Lance dodged it again. Lance shot at the stinger, finally hitting a vulnerable spot which had been the tender flesh around the stinger.

The creature let out an angered shriek and slightly recoiled away due to the burning of the blast. The stinger was still intact, but the skin around it was burnt. It looked painful. It gave Lance the opportunity to get back on his feet. His blaster was still raised and he was ready to shoot once more.

If the creature wasn't angry before, it definitely was now. It's gaze was fixed on Lance as with the opposite front leg, another stinger appeared out of it. Now there were two stingers.

"You have got to me kidding me!"

It began charging at Lance. He had no choice but to leap out of the way and summon his shield, luckily blocking one of the stingers. The creature beat down on the shield with both stingers.

Any choice he could come up with, a stinger would get him. He was trapped. For a moment his strength wavered and the shield slipped up slightly. The creature used another leg to knock the shield and to pin Lance down with another. Lance thought he was done for, but the stinger never came down.

It happened in a span of a few seconds. Lance remembered seeing a red blur continuously hitting at the leg that had a cut.

Keith expertly hit the place where he had cut the creature earlier repetitively until the leg was finally cut off. The creature immediately started backing off, whining in loud screeches of pain leaving the entrails of yellow blood.

Keith offered a hand to Lance, which he took without hesitation. Pulled to his feet, Lance grabbed his blaster. The slightest feeling of déjà vu hit Lance. Earlier against the gladiator, Lance had helped pull Keith to his feet after he'd gotten knocked down protecting him, but the main difference was that with the gladiator, the two had the others with them. The creature they were up against was in a vastly different situation and it was far more dangerous.

"What is that!?" Lance asked, panic evident as the creatures screeches were beginning to quiet down.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Keith then tried to use his communicator. "Shiro? Allura? Anyone? Come in, we need back up now!" The communicator was still coming in as static. It was useless.

The creature obviously never had to face a challenge before. It was inexperienced. Without even having to discuss it, the two both knew that the creature was no doubt the reason for the disappearance of the inhabitants of the planet Zilate. The creature decided that it had enough and it suddenly got three times faster than it was before.

Despite the loss of one leg, the others were certainly making up for it. Lance and Keith stood, back to back, fending of the legs from hitting them. Three more legs appeared with stingers. The two paladins were obviously outmatched; all they could do was fend it off.

Keith swung and stabbed at the one stinger that was inches away from in and Lance. The stinger in the leg was definitely bigger than the others. Preoccupied with two legs with stingers, Lance didn't even notice another leg, hovering afar to his left as it began lactating venom, preparing to strike.

By the time Lance noticed, the leg was already thrusting down toward him. Lance immediately flinched back with his eyes shutting for a moment. The leg was about to run him through. Sudden thoughts of death came over him.

 _So this is the end?_ He thought.

But the strike never came.

It took Lance a moment to realise that something had come between the stinger and him, or rather someone. The stinger had pierced straight through Keith's armour and was embedded into his left shoulder. In the split moment that Lance shut his eyes, Keith had switched their positions and protected him.

Lance didn't remember hearing a scream of pain, but maybe that's because there never was one. Instead, Keith let out what sounded to be like a battle cry and grabbed unto the leg with one hand, twisting it around whilst he aggressively hacked away at the leg with his sword with the other. After about four quick and precise blows, the leg came off the creature.

The creature once again backed off, writhing in pain from the loss of yet another leg. The two both knew it would give them at least a moment. Lance's eyes began widening and he let his bayard slip from his hands. There were many things that Lance wanted to say, but only one question fell from his lips.

"What did you just do?"

Keith ripped out the part of the leg and stinger still hanging from his shoulder. He let out a hiss of pain.

"I think I just saved your life." Suddenly his face grew instantaneously paler and his eyes looked distant. Keith's bayard went back into his suit as he began to fall forward.

"Keith!" Lance caught him before he fell to the ground. The blood began seeping from Keith's shoulder on to Lance.

Before Lance had a chance to react, the creature slammed into him and Keith. Lance managed to absorb most of the blow of the landing, not even realising himself that he had instantly did everything he could to hold onto and shield Keith. Lance's head slammed into the stone of the house and all turned black.

* * *

 **So what do you think? Comment below, let me know!**

 **Also, the next chapter should be out a week from now. Until then, I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own VLD**

 **A/N: This has to be the first time I've ever bet a deadline. Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy ;) Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed, and reviewed. You guys are awesome!**

* * *

Hunk and Pidge had attempted to reboot the systems in the station, but the files had been too corrupted to be salvaged. Pidge ended up kicking the monitor multiple times in frustration until Hunk had to drag her away from it.

It had to have been a miracle that their lions were unaffected by the pulse. They still worked.

Pidge had her own theories about the generator, but in a nutshell it sent of something similar to an electromagnetic pulse so it was not powerful enough to shut down their lions or even Shiro's arm, but it was still powerful enough to mess and scramble with the rest of their equipment.

Getting back into their lions, they heard the voice of the princess.

 _"Paladins! Shiro! Can anyone hear me!?"_

It was good to know that the communication system in the lions still worked.

Shiro immediately answered.

"Princess! We're here."

 _"Shiro! Thank the stars. Is everyone all right? What's happening down there? The communications system just shut down!"_

Hunk gave a brief explanation of what had happened with the galran station, the generator and most importantly, the footage.

Allura was silent for a moment, listening to something Coran was saying. Suddenly she began yelling.

 _"You must find Keith and Lance now!"_

"What's wrong? What's happening?" Hunk was obviously surprised with the sudden panic.

Coran's voice came over the communicator.

 _"The princess and I do have some records of rumours of this happening, but now we fear that it may be true. Do you remember the beast you had to fight to protect the Balmera?"_

"Yeah." Hunk immediately answered. "We saved Shay and her family."

Coran continued, _"Well, creating monsters hasn't been something that's stopped apparently. The rumour was that the galran druids would make new creatures and let them loose on an unsuspecting planet, monitoring them."_

"Why would they do that?" Pidge asked, the tone of anger and disgust lingered.

Allura's voice came back unto the comm.

 _"For warfare."_

The paladins all became visibly agitated. Without the need of their bond to one another, they all had similar thoughts. The galra truly didn't care what they took or who they killed. The only word that could be used to describe them was monsters.

 _"You must find Lance and Keith. We don't know what we're up against .I've traced the signals of their lions, but it doesn't seem that they're with their lions. And the pulse seems to have affected their communicators as well. Follow these coordinates and you'll find their lions."_

The three lions hastily flew in the direction of the signal of the other lions.

* * *

For a moment when his vision was filled with darkness, he felt like he was back at home on earth. He felt as if he had been napping on the beach on top of a towel, separating him from the burning sands. But his head throbbed with pain which was the first sign that something was wrong. The second sign was the sound of someone screaming. It was a normal scream, this scream was pure fear. Despite the pain, he finally managed opened his eyes taking in his surroundings.

He was in fact not at the beach back on earth. He was strung up to a wall, well, stuck would be more have been more accurate, by some sort of web. Lance's vision may have not been completely clear, but his eyes widened in horror at what unfolded in front of him.

He saw the creature dragging someone with it into a tunnel. They screamed, begging for mercy, but obviously the creature did not care.

Lance shut his eyes, squeezing them shut. For a moment he felt like a child again hiding under his blankets from the monsters in the dark. His mother would reassure him that they weren't real and morning always seemed a little brighter. But this was not his childhood. This was real.

Lance opened his eyes and he waited until his vision cleared and he gasped at his surroundings.

The pale blue glow of many scattered crystals illuminated the area enough for Lance to see that he wasn't the only one strung up. He saw that in the entire cave-like place there they were many Zilatians, hanging up in by the walls, strung up by webs. He could only make the assumption that they were unconscious because they didn't look dead, not quite. It looked something similar to near-death; like they were in a deep slumber, like a coma.

Lance had fragments of memories come back to him. He remembered the village. He remembered the creature. A small realisation slammed into him.

 _Keith! Where's Keith!?_

Lance immediately fidgeted and tried to move. He frantically tried to flail, but he was failing. The screams didn't sound like Keith, but he wasn't sure.

"What is this stuff made of? Super glue?" The question was meant to be more of a rhetorical complaint. He hadn't expected an answer.

"Be more quiet or she will here you."

Lance immediately froze. It was a voice he did not recognize. He turned his head toward the source, it came from his left. It was a male zilatian, conscious and looking at him.

Lance attempted to speak through his confusion.

"Wha-"

The zilatian cut him off.

"Shhh, quieter. She might still hear you."

Lance swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Ok. Ok. I'll whisper," Lance had many questions, but he decided to start off slow. "Who are you?"

"My name is Xi'lek." The zilatian looked at Lance up and down. "You're not of my planet. Who are you?"

Lance got a 'grandpa' vibe from the zilatian. He could only guess by the way Xi'lek spoke that he was a village elder of some sort.

"The name's Lance. I'm a paladin of Voltron."

Xi'lek blinked at Lance.

"Voltron?" The confusion sounded so pure.

"Well it's like a giant-" Lance shook his head; he had no time to explain how five giant cat spaceships could transform into a giant warrior robot. "Nevermind, just know that my team and I are here to help."

It was difficult to say it confidently while strung up to a wall by mass amounts of webs.

"Team? There are others with you?"

Lance's eyes almost bulged out of his head. How could he have almost forgotten?

"Have you seen anyone else like me? He looks like me but," Lance didn't know what would be the right word. "He's wearing red."

Xi'lek nodded and gestured with his head toward Lance's right. Lance turned his head and saw Keith not too far from himself. Lance would have been more relieved if Keith's appearance looked healthier. Lance would have thought Keith was dead if it weren't for the slightest movement of his chest, proving that he was still breathing.

Lance tried to keep his voice down, but the panic bubbling within him made his voice louder than it needed to be.

"Keith! Hey, wake up! Keith!"

There was not even a twitch or a change of pace in his breathing. Fear and what felt like mass amounts of concern shot through Lance. Another memory surfaced within his mind; the final pieces of the puzzle of his memory completed itself.

Keith had been run through by the creature's stinger.

Lance immediately glanced toward Keith's shoulder. Lance knew he wasn't the most observant person in the world, but he immediately noticed that some of the web was wrapped up like a bandage around Keith's injured shoulder.

"He will not awake. The Baluke, she must have him planned for the next hunt."

Lance turned back to face Xi'lek.

"What do you mean? What's a Baluke?"

"In my native tongue, baluke means beast. That is what my people called her before she finally ensnared us all, one by one," Xi'lek looked at the web, embalming Keith's wound. "She bound your friend's wound because she wants to hunt him. She wants to play."

"Play?" Lance inquired.

"She likes to play with her food. She likes the thrill of the hunt."

Obviously Xi'lek knew more than him. So he figured there was no harm in telling Xi'lek what had happened.

"My friend, he was pierced by the creature's—the Baluke's stingers."

Xi'lek perked up immediately.

"Did you just say that he was run through by a stinger?"

Lance felt an unpleasant shiver run up his spine. By Xi'lek's expression, it was nothing good.

"Yes. Why? Do you know what it does?" Lance spoke a bit too quickly, but luckily Xi'lek still understood.

"From what I have seen the venom of the stingers makes you sick and weak. Depending on what she plans, it can make you sleep. She has done that to so many of my people now. One by one, she decides to hunt us. And one by one, she devours. She takes them away somewhere else to eat." His voice shook in fear. "I do not want to die here."

The confession sounded so desperate and raw, Lance felt his own fear beginning to reach up inside him.

Lance felt his chest get heavy and his stomach drop. Handling galra soldiers? Sure, he could do that, but this—this was different. This was survival. The galra desired destruction and domination, but this monster, it was acting on instinct. For the first time ever, Lance felt a vulnerability that he never thought he'd experience. Lance knew that they were the prey, and the monster was the conniving predator.

"Listen to me, Xi'lek. My team and I, we're going to find a way and kill that monster, just you wait." Lance honestly didn't know who he was trying to convince, Xi'lek or himself.

Xi'lek looked away from Lance and toward the ground. Lance could already tell that Xi'lek had lost hope a long time ago; he could see it in his eyes.

 _Think Lance. Think!_ He had to figure a way out. Lance felt like a surge of brilliance hit him, his bayard!...that he had dropped during their fight with the creature. _Great_ , Lance thought, _I'm weapon-less and have no way out….wait! Keith still has his bayard!_

Lance turned his attention back to Keith. First he needed to wake him up. He kept his voice as quiet as he could as he once more tried to cajole Keith back into consciousness.

"Keith. Keith! Wake up!" Lance still got no response, so he attempted to go with a different approach, "Hey mullet head, I bet your high score in the training simulator."

Suddenly Keith made a soft groaning sound and his eyes began to flutter open.

 _Are you being serious right now?!_

Lance didn't know whether to be relieved that Keith was waking up or angry that it took saying that he bet his high score for it to happen. However in reality it was completely coincidental, but Lance refused to believe that the two weren't connected.

It took a moment for Keith to fully regain consciousness.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Lance tried to mimic his usual calm yet cocky tone, but it sounded so forced that even Xi'lek could tell it was fake.

Keith's senses were hazy, but he seemed to recognise that it was Lance speaking. Keith turned his head toward Lance. Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance in an attempt to clear his vision by focusing on one thing at a time.

"What happened?" It barely came out coherent and it had been so quiet, but Lance managed to catch his words.

Lance took it as a small victory that Keith could at least speak.

"We fought a freaky looking monster," a surge of guilt ran through him, "You got hurt. Now we're here."

Keith looked like he was nodding to confirm that he remembered.

"Where are we?" It was more coherent than his last sentence and that fact itself seemed to reassure Lance, at least temporarily, that Keith was alright.

"Good question. It's obviously somewhere the scanners couldn't pick up." Lance suddenly recalled the debriefing by Coran and Allura earlier, "We're probably underground somewhere. Coran did say that the dirt here was dense. Maybe it was dense enough to block off scanner signals."

Xi'lek piped into the conversation.

"This is where my people gathered our crystals. This place was sacred before the Baluke spoiled it with death. And you are correct, Lance, paladin of Voltron, electrical energy struggles to pass through our dirts and sands."

Lance wanted to internally groan. That just added another problem to their mess.

"By the way. Xi'lek, that's Keith. And Keith, that's Xi'lek." Lance got the introductions out of the way, under normal circumstances Lance would have sounded more chipper about it, but alas they weren't in that situation.

Keith's vision began to finally clear up. The first thing Keith saw clearly was the dried blood on the side of Lance's face.

"Lance, your head. There's blood."

Lance would have been lying if he had said that he realised that there was blood on the side of his face. Lance was just lucky that he had been wearing his helmet at the time. Lance would have also been lying if he had said that he was expecting Keith to sound so worried and noticed that through the faceguard of his helmet. It was honestly the last thing he had expected.

Not knowing how to really respond, Lance let out a forced laugh.

"You're the one that got ran through with the thing's stinger, shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Lance was hoping for some sort of snide reply, but instead Keith was silent. His eyes were looking distant again, like that once did before he fell unconscious.

"Keith?"

Still there was no reply. Keith was beginning to look like an empty shell. His eyes were glazed over and his eyes continuously stared at one spot. The stare was empty and held nothing within it, and that scared Lance more than he would ever admit.

"Keith, hey!"

After a moment, Lance sighed in relief as Keith finally blinked. Keith took a short gasp of air as if he had been holding it. Keith vigorously blinked and looked around his surroundings like he was once again waking up for the first time. Keith quickly and tightly shut his eyes and let out a grunt of pain.

"Keith, what's going on with you?" Lance asked, obviously confused as to what had just happened.

Xi'lek had watched the entire ordeal unfold.

"It is the venom. It is making him sick. He is starting to slip away."

Lance glanced back to Xi'lek.

"Slip away? Wait. The venom, does it eventually kill?" Lance wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"I do not know. She always eats her prey soon after she uses her venom," Xi'lek's faced grimaced. "But I do know that when the venom starts taking affect, the mind begins to slip away. I have seen friends trying to escape to only find their way back here before the venom made them slip away, leaving them unable to do anything. They are still alive but become like a doll; empty."

It was in that moment that Lance knew that Keith was running out of time. They needed to get out of that place and find the others, get Keith in a healing pod, take out that monster, and save the Zilatians. He wished that it was as easy as listing it in his head.

"Keith, listen to me," Lance's tone was firm in an attempt to ground Keith into the here and now. It seemed like it was working. "You're going to need to summon your bayard from your suit and cut us out."

"Ok," Keith nodded coming back to his senses. "Wait, where's yours?"

"I dropped it when we were fighting it outside." Lance confessed.

Lance rolled his eyes. Even with venom messing with him, Keith still managed to shot him the most unimpressed look.

"I know. I know. Shut up."

Keith tried to shift his arm from inside of the webs wrapped around him.

"C'mon." Keith muttered to himself. Suddenly a faint glow of red appeared and half of Keith's sword was poking out from the web. Keith pushed down with his sword, falling to the ground being freed from the web.

Lance let out a small laugh of triumph.

Keith arms shook as he tried to push himself up from the ground. Keith eventually got to his feet only to stumble to his side and fall back to the ground.

"Keith-"

"I'm fine." Keith snapped. It was an obvious lie, but it was something he had to let himself believe.

Keith forced himself back to his feet and rose up his sword in front of Lance looking like he was ready to thrust down and stab him.

"Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. What are you doing!?" Lance panicked.

Keith cocked his head to the side.

"I'm getting you out." Keith said it so matter-of-factly.

"By stabbing me?" Lance asked while his eyes were still on Keith's sword.

"Just trust me." Keith growled.

Lance let out a small shriek as Keith sliced down the web. Lance fell flat on his face. He quickly checked he was in one piece. He sighed in relief once he double checked his armour.

Suddenly they heard the familiar screech. It was the creature, the baluke. They turned around to the source. There were three tunnel passages, one on the left, the middle, and one on the right. It was coming from the tunnel passage on their right.

"She approaches us!" Xi'lek panicked.

"We can get you down but we need to hurry." Lance said.

Xi'lek glanced back to where the source of the Baluke's screeching was coming from.

"You and your team can really help us?" Xi'lek asked.

"Yes." Keith's sincerity rang throughout the zilatian's ears.

Xi'lek closed his eyes for a moment to only then open them with a new sparked resolve.

"Take the tunnel to your left. The Baluke has altered our underground tunnels and created new tunnels in order to set up her game. Beware of the turns you make or they may be your last."

"Wait, no, you're coming with us!" Lance shook his head.

"There is not enough time," as if to emphasize Xi'lek's argument, the Baluke shrieked again. She was getting closer. "Now go, Lance, paladin of Voltron. Go find your team and save us."

Keith tugged at Lance's arm.

"We need to go."

Lance shot a meaningful look towards Xi'lek.

"We will come back for you." He promised.

"Go!" Xi'lek urged.

Lance grabbed Keith by his wrist and the two paladins ran.

* * *

Hunk was the first to spot the red and blue lions.

"There's their lions."

The three paladins landed their lions beside them. They scanned the area. Pidge cupped her hands on the sides of her mouth.

"Lance? Keith?" Pidge called out. There was no reply. "Well it was worth a try." She muttered to herself.

Shiro was the first to spot the village. No doubt that Lance and Keith had gone to check it out.

"Alright. Weapons out, we're checking out the village."

The three entered the village. It was a complete mess, houses were smashed down and the debris was scattered all across the place. No doubt that a large fight had gone down yet there was no trace of anyone.

"Guys," Pidge pointed, "Look!"

It was a dismembered leg in the distance. Pidge ran over to it. It's blood was yellow and it oozed all along the ground.

"It looks like Lance and Keith have been busy," Pidge crouched down closer to the leg. "Do you think that this is from the thing we saw on the footage?"

Before Shiro could answer, Hunk spotted something else.

"Over there!"

Hunk pointed toward the distant blue object. He jogged over with Shiro and Pidge following closely behind. Hunk picked it up and there was no mistake, it was Lance's bayard.

"Whatever it was, it must have taken them." Hunk stated, staring down at Lance's bayard in his hands.

Pidge scanned the ground to see if there were any other objects lying on the ground. She had half expected to see Keith's bayard lying elsewhere. What Pidge found wasn't Keith's bayard, but it was red. Her face fell.

"Shiro." Pidge wasn't often shaken up, but there was a slight tremble in her hand pointing to what she was looking at.

Both Hunk and Shiro looked over. It was another dismembered leg, it was identical to the other, but this was also covered in a red substance. It was obvious from the other leg that the creature bled yellow blood and not red.

The three paladins had no doubt that it was either Lance's or Keith's blood. It was impossible to tell who was injured, but with Lance's stray bayard being found they could only make assumptions.

"I never should have said to split up," Shiro scolded himself. He then clenched his fist and looked up with determination. "They're still alive, I know it. We will find them."

* * *

Lance honestly had no idea where he was going, but he dragged Keith with him through every twist and turn. Xi'lek hadn't been joking when he had said that the Baluke liked to play. It had made an elaborate maze of tunnels.

The two paladins were silently thankful that the small crystals were scattered amongst the walls of the tunnel, illuminating their path.

They needed to get out of there and those thoughts conquered Lance's mind.

"…nce."

 _We need to keep running._

"Lance."

 _We need to get out of here now._

"Lance! Stop!" Keith yanked his arm away from Lance's grip and he hissed in pain, holding his injured shoulder.

 _Oh. OH!_ Lance had been pulling at Keith's arm with the injured shoulder.

Lance was expecting Keith to snap at him as usual for doing something wrong, but Keith didn't say anything he just held his shoulder and caught his breath.

"I think we've made a good distance. Did you want to take a second to catch our breath?" There had been a lack on answer. "Keith?"

Lance turned around to see Keith double over and starting to vomit. No doubt that the vague green colour had been the food goo from earlier that morning.

"Just let it out, buddy." Lance hesitant tone was only complimented by his awkward pats on Keith's back.

It wasn't that he wasn't used to people vomiting, in fact, Hunk puked a lot. It was just the fact that it was Keith. He knew how to comfort Hunk, he was his best friend, but Keith on the other hand, Keith was a different story. Keith was his rival. Lance had never imagined the scenario of trying to comfort a vomiting Keith and even if he had it would not have prepared him.

Keith continued to empty the contents of his stomach for a good minute with Lance continuously patting his back. Keith didn't particularly enjoy physical contact with others, but despite Lance's uneven and awkward pats, there was something somewhat soothing about it.

It took a while for Keith to run out of things to vomit up, but eventually he stopped.

Lance had no doubt that the Baluke would be able to smell it eventually, but that was honestly the last thing on his mind. Keith would have not been in that state if it weren't for him. Lance needed to get him out of that place. Keith wasn't going to die, not on his watch, not because of him.

"Can you stand?" Lance asked.

Keith tried to stand and after standing straight for a moment he began to fall forwards. If Lance hadn't pulled him backwards in time, Keith would have went face first into his own vomit. Keith sat back down and panted, leaning his head against the dirt behind him. Lance frowned. All the running was making Keith worse. He saw red beginning to seep from Keith's shoulder through the web.

"I'm surprised how well the webbing has held out as a makeshift bandage. The monster, she's smart." Keith stated, his hand absentmindedly picked at the webs.

"Well it won't hold forever. You're still losing blood." Lance saw the blood leaking from the web on the back of his shoulder. He inspected the wound. Did he know what he was doing? Nope, but he at least knew the basics. There wasn't a lot of blood, but there was enough to seep through the thick layer of web and that alone was worrisome.

Lance knew that running would only raise Keith's heart rate and he knew that meant that it meant that the bleeding would only get worse. He had to keep Keith calm and at a steady pace if they were going to make it out with Keith still conscious and not bleeding out.

"How does it feel?" Lance asked. Keith was quiet for a second.

"It's not as bad as it looks. The pain has gotten pretty numbed down after a while." Keith was a convincing liar.

If Keith were telling the truth, he would have said how his entire shoulder felt like someone continuously was grinding a chainsaw into it that was on fire, but he didn't want that on Lance's conscious. He and Lance may have not gotten along at the best of times, but Keith knew Lance enough to know that he would agonize in guilt over it. And they both needed to keep calm.

"Ok. That's good right?" By Lance's tone, Keith felt like he had made the right decision to lie. "I'm honestly surprised that the monster hasn't found us yet."

"I don't think she's noticed that we're gone yet, but once she does…" Keith didn't bother finishing the sentence.

Lance looked down the pathways. It was either left or right.

"So we need a plan. How do you suppose we can get out of here?"

Keith shut his eyes letting out a deep sigh.

"I don't know. All we can do for now is follow the path and hope we take the correct turns or we're dead." Keith of course was brutally honest. He opened his eyes. "I think we've ran in a circle. We've been here before."

"What? How can you tell? These passages all look the same."

Keith pointed behind them. Lance looked to see the trails of their footprints in the dirt. It immediately gave Lance an idea.

"Maybe we can use this." Lance walked over to the largest mass of crystals in the dirt wall.

Keith didn't move from where he sat, but he continued to watch Lance curiously.

"What are you doing?" Keith tried to get a better look, but Lance was blocking his view.

"Well, the monster is smart, but I don't think she's smart enough to tell what this means." Lance revealed what he was doing. He was drawing a large arrow in the dirt wall. The light of the crystals illuminated it, making it obvious. "With every passage we enter and with every turn we make, I'll make an arrow. That way we don't run in circles and if it leads to a dead end I'll mark it with an x on the way back around."

"That's actually a good idea," Keith admitted. He was actually impressed. "We need to keep moving then." Keith said, trying to once again stand.

"Take it slow." Lance's hands hovered nearby if he needed to catch him again.

Keith didn't fall forward or sway, he stood perfectly fine. Keith gave a short nod of reassurance.

"Ok. We've made good distance so we're going to walk, alright?"

Having Lance taking the role of leader was an odd thought to Keith. He had never seen Lance act so seriously before, or being so concerned on that note.

However, internally Lance was freaking out. He had millions thoughts of panic and fear running through his mind. Lance had his own mental list of how their situation was the worst.

The Baluke could find them at any moment. Keith was most likely dying. The others had no clue where they were. Their communicators weren't working. And to top things off, Lance didn't have his bayard. Keith may have had his, but Lance could see him growing weaker with each passing moment and Lance didn't know how to use a sword.

But despite all these things, Lance knew that he needed to have a clear head and at least act like he wasn't panicking. The panicking could wait until after they got out of the tunnels.

Keith slowly nodded.

"Alright. Lead the way."

Suddenly Keith felt a wave of nausea and his body tingled. It wasn't a pleasant feeling; it felt a shot of ice had run up through his spine. It made him feel numb everywhere but his injured shoulder. Keith let out a sputtered breath, but he covered his mouth to muffle the sound so Lance couldn't hear. He had to keep it together.

"Keith?"

Before Lance turned around to face him, Keith straightened up, trying to look as alright as possible.

"If anything gets worse for you, let me know, ok?"

 _How ironic_ , Keith remembered thinking. But what would have been the point in telling Lance the truth? It would have no benefit. As long as Keith could still walk and he could still think, then he considered that to be fine.

Keith nodded and Lance started to walk forward, turning to the path to their left.

"I can do this." Keith mumbled to himself, quickly following closely behind Lance.

* * *

Allura frantically paced. She had faith that the paladins would be alright, but with Lance and Keith missing and with the communicators only working in their lions it was a hard to remain hopeful. Especially after what Shiro had told her and Coran about the footage.

The main hub began beeping. It was the black lion. Allura jumped toward the panel before Coran even got near it.

"Shiro, how is the search coming along?"

He was quiet for a moment before he began to explain the situation. He explained how they had found a village and about Lance's stray bayard and the severed legs of the creature.

 _"There's no sign of them,"_ Shiro continued, _"And on one of the legs, there was blood on it, human blood."_

Allura and Coran exchanged a look of concern.

"Shiro, where are the legs now?" Coran asked.

 _"We've moved them just outside of our lions. Pidge is having a look at them, she's seeing what we can find out about it."_

 _"Shiro!"_ Another voice came over the communicator, it unmistakably a panicking Hunk. _"Pidge found retractable stingers or a fang of some sort within the legs along with a venom sack. So however is hurt has that pumping through them!"_

 _"What!?"_ Shiro gasped.

"Then we're running out of time," Allura muttered. "Shiro, this may not help you, but the zilatians were very secretive about where they gathered their crystals as the place is considered sacred in their culture. Perhaps that may be a place to start looking in order to find Lance and Keith. Also, Shiro, you'll need to keep the-"

Suddenly the castle's sirens were beeping. Coran's eyes immediately widened at the main hub's screen.

 _"What's going on?"_ Even through the communicator, Shiro could hear the castle's sirens.

"Princess, the scanners picking up incoming ships." Coran informed, getting a lock on the ship.

Allura glanced over to the screen.

"What are we looking at here, Coran?"

"It's definitely galran, most likely some smaller battleships or scouting ships by the looks of it. Maybe they've come to check on the creature they made."

Allura glanced at the signal and the stats. Their first priority was to save the people of Zilate and Lance and Keith. The princess was not going to let a few little galran ship interfere.

"Good. We can take it on our own. Prepare the castle's defence systems."

"Right away!" Coran began to rush around, prepping the castle for battle.

 _"Galran ships? How many?"_

Allura went back to speaking with Shiro through the communicator. Her voice turned serious and authoritive.

"Shiro, make sure you keep the venom sack. If either Lance or Keith is infected, we'll need to be ready. Coran and I will need it in order to create an anti-venom. Continue to search for them. We will contact you once we've dealt with the ships. Coran and I can handle them."

By Allura's tone, Shiro knew not to argue.

 _"Alright. Be careful."_

"The same goes to you." Allura closed down the communicator and turned back to the main hub, showing the ships approaching.

She and Coran were about to be very busy.

* * *

Lance really had no idea where he was going.

Not that he had any clue before, but whilst they weren't running in a circle anymore, it was still confusing and it felt endless.

But the worst part of it all, the two were walking around in silence. It wasn't like it didn't make sense. By not talking they didn't risk the Baluke finding them by hearing them. Lance said the occasional random mutter, but Keith never replied back.

He had glanced back a few times but Keith just gave him something like a glare. So Lance decided to be quiet for a while. But what Lance saw that was a glare wasn't. Keith was really trying to focus on walking.

Lance found himself staring at yet another crossroad type of choice. It was either the passage on the right, or the one on the left. Lance could only think of one solution to solve his predicament.

"Eenie meenie miney moe." Left was out, they were going right. "Great, here we go again."

Lance went over to mark the dirt in the wall, but by doing so he failed to notice Keith suddenly grabbing the side of the dirt wall on the other side.

Keith felt his voice die in his throat. He couldn't call out to Lance. He had lost a fight he didn't know he had been fighting.

Everything was going numb, but it wasn't physically. It was strange. He felt detached from his body. It felt like being submerged in water in a dream. Everything was beginning to feel less and less real. He felt himself drifting like he was falling asleep, but his eyes remained open. It felt oddly peaceful.

"So will the right way actually be the right way?" Lance attempted a lame pun in order to break the ice. He knew Keith always groaned his jokes, but he decided that he was sick of the silence. "Keith?"

Lance turned around to see Keith staring blankly into the ground. His eyes were in a daze. Lance knew exactly what was happening.

"Keith!"

As soon as Lance tried to grab a hold of him, Keith collapsed, but it wasn't like he lost his balance. He literally felt like an old rag doll. Xi'lek hadn't been wrong when he had said that they became like a doll.

Keith's eyes always carried a flame behind them. It was only appropriate that he was the red paladin, the spirit guardian of fire. But now the flame was barely flickering, it was going out. Keith was slipping away right in front of him.

Lance sat Keith up against the wall and he began to throttle Keith by his shoulders.

"Keith! No! You can't do this to me! C'mon, Please!" Lance pleas turned into desperate anger, "Where did your fighting spirit go!? Fight it! I know you can hear me! You're always saying how you're the better fighter, now prove it!"

Keith didn't move. Keith may have been stubborn, but so was Lance. If this didn't work then he didn't know what would.

Lance raised his arm high and with great force he struck Keith right across his face.

* * *

 **A/N: Dun Dun DUN!**  
 **It's not the worst cliffhanger I've ever done, this is pretty light hearted actually.**

 **PRONUNCIATION: Xi'lek - Shh-lek**

 **Baluke - Bah-Luke (How it's spelt)**

 **Literally these names have no hidden meaning. I randomly thought of random sounds and that's how it happened.**

 **Hope you enjoyed. Like it? Hate it? Comment below, let me know!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey, back again with a new chapter. Prepare for fluff and angst! :D But mostly angst.**

* * *

Pidge stared down at Lance's bayard in her hands. She had insisted on holding it. Worry burned through her being. Lance and Keith were important to her. Pidge may have not said it, but she felt that the other paladins were a part of her family. Her brother and father were still lost somewhere in space. And now Lance and Keith were missing.

With only the bayard and the blood to go on by, it was obvious that either Lance or Keith was running out of time. However, whilst Pidge had her concerns, she hid them better than Hunk; he couldn't stand still for more than a second. It was good that he was keeping his hands busy with Shiro's helmet, trying to fix his communicator.

The three paladins began scouting around the outskirts of the village and there were no clues as to where the creature had gone.

"Surely there should be something out here." Pidge said, impatient at their results.

"I know," Hunk agreed, suddenly smelling something in the air. He quickly realised the source, "Is that me? I think that's me. I'm sorry if you can smell it. I sweat when I'm really worried. I don't know why, but it happens-"

Shiro decided to step in to stop his babbling. No doubt it was another sign of nervousness and worry.

"Hunk, it's alright."

"He's right, Hunk," Pidge piped in.

Hunk only frowned. In the great scheme of things, words of comfort could not compare to his amount of uneasiness.

"Well, Shiro, your communicator should be back online." Hunk passed the helmet back to Shiro. Pidge immediately passed her helmet to Hunk, wanting hers rebooted by Hunk next.

"Testing. 1. 2. 3. Is the communicator working?" Shiro tested.

All Shiro heard was static before a sudden voice crackled over the communicator.

 _"Shiro? Oh good! You've got your communicator working! Any leads yet?"_

"None yet." Shiro replied. "How are you and Coran holding up?"

There was a brief silence before Allura replied.

 _"Great. Coran and I are dealing with it perfectly fine."_

Over the communicator, Shiro vaguely heard the sounds of lasers being shot and Coran shouting something in the background along with the sounds of explosions. It was ambiguously distressing.

"Allura-" Shiro didn't get to finish.

 _"Like I said, we're handling it. Find Lance and Keith! I'll check back later!"_ Allura then cut off the connection.

"How are they going?" Hunk asked.

"Allura didn't ask for help, she said she could handle it, they'll be fine." Shiro assured. He had faith in Allura and Coran. They would come through.

Pidge frowned.

"They're still fighting them? Maybe one us should- Agh." Pidge was suddenly flat on her face in the dirt below from tripping over what looked to be a rock. Pidge immediately got up, picking Lance's bayard back up. The only thing wounded was her pride.

"Woah, holy crow! Pidge, are you okay!?" Hunk immediately asked.

"I'm fine, why?" She confusedly asked. Pidge felt something on her face instinctively brushed a hand over it. Whatever it was, it got on her hands. Pidge looked down and gasped, it was blood.

Shiro gently tilted Pidge's head side to side trying to look for the source.

"You don't have any cuts." Shiro informed.

"That's because it's not mine." Pidge pointed to the ground. It had barely been noticeable in the dark dirt, but there was a trail of blood. There weren't any large amounts, but there would not be a day when blood wouldn't be a distressing sign.

No one knew whether to be glad or alarmed that they had found their own trail of breadcrumbs to find their missing Hansel and Gretel.

* * *

Keith had remembered feeling himself slipping away from reality just moments before. Recalling exactly what happened was hard to explain. He remembered feeling drawn away. It was all going dark but he heard words, now thinking about he realised it had been Lance pleading and yelling. But none of it felt real. At least, that was until Keith felt a stinging pain from something other than his shoulder. His face hurt, a lot.

Lance felt the sound of the slap ringing through his ears and his hand began to sting.

"Wake up!" Lance screamed into Keith's ear, but he was still unresponsive. Keith's eyes were still darkened and void.

There had been nothing but pure silence for an agonizing few seconds. Lance felt like the last of his hope died. This was his fault.

"Ow."

It had been the smallest sound, but it was there. It had to have been a miracle.

Whilst Lance wanted it desperately to work, he had never thought that it would. Lance watched as a small slither of light returned in Keith's eyes. Keith slowly picked up his head and blinked at Lance, looking dazed as if he were just waking up from a nap.

Before Keith had time to even realise it, Lance had thrown his arms around him.

The numbing disappeared and Keith let out the smallest gasp. It was in that moment when Lance's arms were wrapped around him, shaking, that Keith knew it was real. There could be no faking the fear and relief that pulsed off of him. It drew Keith back.

Whatever confusion Keith had left quickly subsided. He wasn't alone, he hadLance was with him, but most importantly, Lance was real. And that fact alone was enough to ground him back, regaining his senses.

"Lance?" Keith croaked. It's not that he needed any further affirmation, but it was more informing Lance that he knew it was him.

Wordlessly, Lance tightened his grip around him for only a moment more before he let go. Lance's relief morphed into anger and punched Keith's uninjured shoulder.

"You scared me half to death! Do you have a mullet for a brain too!? Don't do that again!"

Keith blinked at him. Normally Lance would use the same tone if he was trying to insult him, but there had been an unmistakeable layer of concern.

"You almost sound worried." Keith said, trying to take a small jab at Lance. Of course, the reply was such a forced response, but Keith craved a small piece of normalcy after the ordeal and poking fun of Lance was the only thing he could think of.

"Well of course I'm-" Lance stopped midsentence, shaking his head, "Nevermind. What exactly just happened?"

"I," Keith was silent for a moment. "I was gone. I can't explain it."

It was one of those instances that had to be experienced to know how it felt. Keith briefly felt better at the thought that Lance wouldn't have to.

"Well," Lance gave Keith a tired smile, "You're still here."

 _Am I?_ Keith thought. The numbness had gone, but everything else came back at once. His shoulder hurt so much that it made him nauseas and that was on top of the nausea he had already. Keith felt grateful that he nothing left in his stomach to puke back up.

"You look really sweaty." Lance pressed his hand against Keith's forehead, on instinct he flinched, but Lance didn't seem to mind.

"Woah," Lance gasped, but never retracting his hand. "It literally feels like you're burning."

"It doesn't matter," Keith said, battering Lance's hand away from his forehead. "Help me up."

Lance extended his hand and helped pull Keith to his feet. His body ached and he wanted to just drop back down and not get up, but he fought against the urge.

"Can you walk?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay for now."

Lance looked at him with the look of hesitance.

"We are walking side by side and we will be talking the whole time. We can't have that happening again, okay?"

Had Keith just condemned himself to Lance's mindless chatter?

Yes, yes he did.

* * *

Okay, so maybe, just maybe, Allura had underestimated the defence of the galran ships. The ships themselves didn't have a large attacking battle system, but it's agility was greater than the Castle of Lions. And it also didn't help that it was spitting out tinier attack drones.

The ships were moving around too quickly to get a good lock-on them. The castle had entered flying around in evasive maneuverers. The two alteans knew that they couldn't run forever.

"Raise the shields!" Allura commanded.

The blue shield protected the castle.

"The particle shield is at 50% power. It won't hold out forever, Princess," Coran stated. "And if we don't get rid of them soon, they'll get back up."

Coran was right. Allura had to think and she had to do it fast. One of the lions could have handled the ships with easy due to their agility, but it wasn't an option. Allura said she could handle it and she was going to keep her word. The obvious fact was that they were smaller and faster, but the castle was larger and more powerful.

 _Wait_ , she thought, _maybe we can use that!_

"Coran, go at them at full speed."

"What?"

"Do it!" Allura ordered.

Coran caught on to her plan and transferred all power to the thrusters. The Castle of Lions may have been 10,000 years old, but it was still more powerful than the enemies expected.

Using the mass and speed of the castle, the ships got thrown back against the gravity pull around the castle.

The drones were stunned long enough for the castle to get a lock-on them. Allura instantaneously transferred all power to the laser torrents and fired. The drones were destroyed in a matter of ticks.

It only left the main scouting ships left. Even in the midst of battle, Allura couldn't help but feel a dread dwell over her, not for her, but for the paladins.

* * *

After getting a dead end, Lance and Keith retraced their steps to go back. And to add to the feeling of time taking forever, Lance kept his word and he just kept talking.

Lance had just finished explaining the entire plot of a soap opera-esque show about how two people finally got together after having to deal with an evil ex and long-lost child, only to find out on their wedding day that they were fraternal twins separated at birth. Lance had paused multiple times to make sure Keith was listening. Keith made the occasional comment and 'yeah' to make sure Lance knew he was still conscious. Lance just kept talking as he marked walls and chose which way to go.

The intricate details that Lance knew about the show and the actors in it was frightening Keith.

"How do you know so much about this?" Keith finally asked.

"My older brother is obsessed with this show. I always watched it with him when he managed to claim the TV remote so I learned a thing or two. Even if I did grab it before him, he'd still wrestle it out of my hands." Lance fondly smiled at the thought of his family. It was such a genuine smile. It was nothing like Keith had seen from Lance before.

"So you're the youngest?" Keith honestly didn't know why he wanted to keep the conversation of Lance's family alive, but it may have had to do with the sincerity of Lance's smile. It made him curious.

Lance shook his head, "No, no. I have two younger sisters as well and an older sister. I'm the third child."

"You have a big family." Keith stated.

"Tell me about it. My mom is one out of six and my dad is one out of four, so I have so many cousins," Lance's smile only continued to grow. "Every Christmas, we'd have the whole family over and its absolute chaos. There are so many kids running around the yard." Lance laughed.

As Lance was telling him the story, all Keith imagined was about twenty tiny Lances running around. It was both amusing yet horrifying.

"But the food is amazing," Lance continued, "My mom, she'd make her famous arroz con pollo . I always helped her make it for our big Christmas dinner. We've done it every year since I was little."

Lance's smile turned melancholy.

"I wonder how they're all doing right now. Back on Earth, I mean."

Keith was no fool, he and the others knew that Lance missed Earth the most. Keith finally understood as to why he did now. Back on Earth, Lance had so many people that he missed and that probably missed him as well. Keith on the other hand, well, he had no one.

"You miss them a lot, don't you?" Keith could have blamed the venom and his injury for such a foolish question, but he really just let curiosity get the best of him because he didn't know how it felt. He missed his shack in the desert, but that was different and he knew that.

"Of course I do," Lance replied with the obvious, but what he asked next made Keith's mind go blank. "Well, what about you? Don't you miss your family?"

If Keith wasn't infected with venom and hurt, he would have kept up a cover to mask what he had been feeling, but in that moment he didn't have the energy to hide it in time. Lance saw his hurt expression. Lance knew in that moment that he maybe should not have asked.

"I-I'm sorry if it sounds I'm prying, you don't have to answer if-"

"No," Keith interjected. "No, it's okay. It's just that I…"

Keith didn't like talking about it and he didn't like it when people brought it up, and the situation of being hunted by a creature probably wasn't appropriate, but he said it anyway.

"I don't have a family."

Lance at first thought that Keith was joking, but it was by looking at Keith's face that he knew that he was being completely honest. Lance had never seen Keith so….vulnerable.

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but he quickly shut it. Keith expected to hear the typical speech starters he had heard from so many adults back at the garrison that had read his file.

 _I'm sorry to hear that_ or _So you're an orphan? That's so sad._ The list of what he heard was endless. It had become a large reason as to why he didn't like talking about it. Keith felt like he made a mistake. He didn't want Lance of all people to only know by the label of 'orphan'.

"Don't you have questions?" Keith attempted to bait it out.

Lance stared at him, but to Keith's surprise he shook his head.

"No. Well, I'm not going to ask unless you want to talk about it."

Keith was surprised. He didn't expect Lance to be so respectful about it. _You learn something new every day_ , Keith thought.

"You know, only one other person said something like that when I told them." Keith said.

"Who was it?" Lance asked, genuinely curious.

"Shiro." Keith answered. It was true. Shiro had to be the first person Keith ever really trusted enough to say anything to.

Lance absentmindedly nodded. A sudden grin spread across his face.

"Well, I was only tossing up the decision before, but now I've made up my mind. When we go back to Earth, the first thing you're doing is coming with me to meet my family."

Keith was so startled that his immediate response was a small,

"What?"

"It's happening, just accept it," Lance suddenly laughed, "But fair warning, my sisters are probably going to try and braid that mullet of yours."

Keith had not been the reply he was expecting. He knew that the tone wasn't pity, it was more in affirmation.

What Keith was used to hearing was 'so you're alone? That's so sad', but Lance's response had been different. Keith didn't understand, but what Lance's reply meant was 'so you're alone? Well, not anymore'. Shiro was the only other person to say something like that. And it was the fact that it was Lance that Keith couldn't bring himself to believe it.

"But why?" Keith asked.

"Because," Lance said it so matter-of-factly. "You're my friend."

 _Friend_. The word was so simple, but it repeated constantly in his mind. Keith never had many friends growing up, in fact, Shiro was probably his only true friend. However, now he felt that the other paladins were his friends, and to larger extent, family. He may have not known was it was like to have one, but he imagined it was how he felt about the other paladins. Though he had never been sure about Lance, but the confirmation of it had come from the man himself, and it made a small part of him happy.

"Friend, huh?" Doubt flooded Keith's mind, maybe this was just pity, he thought. "Well, that helps explains why you say how you hate me so much." Keith a small smirk, but it looked more like a grimace.

Lance stopped in his tracks. Keith was about to ask why they had stopped, but Lance suddenly spoke.

"I don't."

Confused at the sudden drop in his voice, Keith turned his head toward Lance.

"I don't hate you," Lance clarified, looking at Keith. Lance's eyes had softness behind its gaze, but also a stern seriousness. It was so unlike Lance.

"You literally said that you hated me this morning." Keith's eyebrow cocked up at Lance. Keith would never normally leave himself so open to emotional vulnerability, but he was really too tired to care.

"I know what I've said, but I never meant it. I mean, we don't always get along and sometimes you drive me nuts, but," Lance continued, "I never have hated you, not really. I was just…" Instead of finishing the sentence, he grunted and continued to walk, but Keith wasn't going to let it go so easily.

"You were just…?" Lance still did not say anything, so Keith grabbed his arm. "Lance."

Lance frowned and sighed, giving in to Keith's pestering. The confession came out so quietly that Keith had barely heard it.

"I was jealous."

Keith's face dropped.

"Why?"

That one worded question set something off within Lance. He looked at Keith like he had grown an extra head.

"Why wouldn't I be? You were the prodigy of the garrison, the best pilot in our class. You were perfect in just about everything," Lance's honesty just kept pouring out. "Becoming a pilot had always been my dream since I was a kid. I worked hard my whole life to make that dream come true, but no matter how hard I worked, I wasn't nearly as good as you. You were everything that I wasn't, but wanted to be."

It took Lance a moment to realise what he had said during his outburst. His expression turned to shame and embarrassment. He half expected Keith to laugh, but he didn't. Keith's face was blank and he was quiet.

"I never thought about it like that," Keith confessed. His own pride told him not to continue, but he did anyway. "But if this means anything, I've never actually thought that you're a horrible pilot. Your flying methods sometimes may not be….safe, but regardless I have always seen you as an equal, and well, I do get competitive at times, I'll admit to that much."

Lance didn't know what to say, he just blinked at Keith. So Keith actually felt threatened by Lance's piloting skills? The conversation had first started on about a strange show, and now it had become a share and care fest. If he had told himself that morning that this is where his day was going to go, he would have laughed and thrown food goo at his own face.

"Thank you." Lance had uttered the tiniest mumble, but Keith heard it.

A silence lingered over the two. It wasn't awkward, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. As if fearing that the silence would somehow make Keith fall back into his coma-like state, Lance suddenly smirked.

"But hey, don't get me wrong, I've never been jealous of that mullet. Not in a million years."

Keith actually laughed, it was a real laugh. It made Lance smile. It may have only been a short chuckle, but it was so honest that Lance could only describe it as pure.

"Why do you always bag on my hair?" Keith rolled his eyes, but there was no annoyance behind it, only amusement. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Have you looked in the mirror?" Lance teased.

"I thought you just said that we were friends." If Keith had enough strength, he would have punched Lance in the arm.

"We are," Lance confirmed, "And as your friend, I am entitled to make fun of you."

"You don't make fun of Hunk." Keith complained because it was the truth. He never made fun of Hunk, and if he did it was so light-hearted.

"Hunk's the goodiest person I know." Lance put a hand over his chest plate dramatically. "Why would I make fun of Hunk?"

"That's not a word."

"What?"

"Goodiest," Keith explained. "That's not a real word."

"Well it is now." Lance claimed. The cocky confidence in his voice had returned with a vengeance.

"No it's not." The slight smile could have been heard in Keith's voice.

"Yes it is. I am the dictionary now, Keith."

"Lance-"

"We're making it a word." Lance interrupted.

"Lance."

"It's a cool word, I'm a genius."

"Lance!" Keith yelled, finally grabbing Lance's attention. Keith's legs had been wobbling, and he collapsed to his knees panting.

"What's wrong?" It was amazing how quickly Lance could go from joking around to serious again.

"I'm losing strength in my legs." Keith tried to stand back up, but his legs immediately shook underneath him, forcing him back to the ground.

"Don't strain yourself." Lance commanded. His eyebrows furrowed and he suddenly asked, "Why did you even save me?" The question had been so spontaneous, that Lance even surprised himself.

"What?"

"Forget what I just said." Lance grumbled.

Keith felt his anger boil in annoyance and he glared at Lance. Why was he asking this now? What did saying that prove?

"Remember training this morning?" Keith snapped, "I charged at the gladiator and it almost overpowered me. It was going to knock me down and you saved me. Why?"

"That's different." Lance insisted.

"How is that any different?"

Before Lance could reply or Keith could keep arguing, Keith let out a short scream of pain, grabbing on to his shoulder. Lance took one look at the injury and gasped. Through the blood soaked web, some of the blood around the wound was beginning to clot. No doubt the venom was doing that.

Keith kept trying to breathe slowly, but it didn't work so well. He pressed his face into the ground below them, slightly rocking. Lance didn't know if it was tears or sweat streaming down Keith's face, but either way, it wasn't good news.

 _We need a way out of this death maze now!_

"We're going to stand up, alright?" Lance gave Keith a second to nod. He grabbed Keith's arm and slung it over him.

Keith wordlessly understood and he tried to stand. Using Lance for support, they started to walk. It was quite slow, but at least it was working.

"You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay." Lance kept repeating, practically dragging with him.

Lance hastily marked the walls they passed and kept mindlessly repeating to Keith that they were going to get out of there. It had to been pure chance that they were seemingly going the right way. And for a moment, Lance thought the two of them could finally escape the tunnels. But that was only for a moment.

"Wait, wait, wait. Lance, stop for a second, I can't breathe."

Lance immediately stopped and Keith stumbled over his own feet trying to catch his own breath. They had barely been walking at an average speed, but Keith already had to catch his breath.

Keith was fading. His consciousness started slipping away in small pieces by the second, but more importantly, Keith knew what it meant.

He was dying.

There was no other way of explaining how he felt and Lance could see it happening. Keith was sickeningly pale. His skin almost looked transparent and it looked slightly grey.

Suddenly, Lance felt a pit in his stomach drop as he and Keith heard a familiar screech echoing through the tunnels. It was the Baluke.

"Quiznak." Lance cursed. The Baluke, it had finally caught their trail and it sounded like it was coming after them fast.

Keith looked up and saw a large mass to rocks all closely wedged together. It definitely looked unstable. It looked like if one rock were to be moved than the whole roof of the tunnel would come down in that small section.

The thought hit him. Lance could still run and think coherently. Keith had barely said two sentences to the zilatian, Xi'lek, but he had promised that they would help save the zilatian people.

Keith believed that the unstable rocks above him were a sign. He knew what he needed to do. As a paladin of Voltron the sake of others came before him. He had known it before, but now he was ready to take that responsibility.

"C'mon! We need to go!" Lance attempted to drag Keith with him, but Keith fought at his grip. It only caused Lance to get a tighter hold on him.

"Go on without me." Keith said.

Lance ignored him, thinking that Keith's mind was being fried by his fever or it was just that Lance didn't hear him. Keith assumed it was the latter. But he was going to do it—not because he wanted to, but because he had to. It was a matter of survival, and Keith knew that he needed to be the sacrifice.

"Lance, Listen to me!" Pushing himself away from Lance, his face softened in acceptance. "You have to go on without me."

Lance's face paled and he vigorously shook his head.

"No, that's not happening. It's not an option. I'm not leaving you behind!"

Keith leant against the wall for support, taking in a deep breath. His vision was getting worse. He felt like his core was dipped in ice water.

"I can barely walk and I can feel myself slipping again. She's right on our trail." He pulled out his bayard. "I can buy you enough time to get out of here. Find the others."

Lance attempted to tug the sword out of the other's hand.

"Keith, no! She'll kill you!"

With what strength he had left, Keith pulled back away from Lance. Keith had to take in another deep breath; the nausea helped him calm any anger that may have been welling inside of him.

"Listen. It won't kill me, not right away," Keith's voice was more quiet and calm than Lance had ever heard it previously. "So hurry up and go."

Lance didn't have to know Keith as well as Shiro to know that Keith was lying. He didn't know what would happen. Keith was relying on chance.

"How do you know that it won't?" _I know that you're lying._

"This isn't about me. We made a promise to Xi'lek, we need to save them." Keith never begged, but it was the closest to desperation that Lance had ever heard.

They both heard the distant sound of the creature approaching. Activating his bayard, Keith determinedly looked forward.

"Just go."

Lance attempted to grab him by the arm again.

"Keith-"

He pushed Lance away. It had barely knocked him back. Keith was growing weaker by the moment. Before Lance had time to notice, he felt a pulse of energy flow back into him and he gave another shove with all his might to knock Lance down.

"GO!" Keith yelled, his voice was loud and stern. The screeches of the creature were heard getting even closer. The Baluke was coming for them.

Without a second thought or hesitation, Keith thrust his sword upwards. The rocks collapsed onto the ground beginning to block the path. Lance didn't have enough time to react before the path was completely blocked off.

Keith could vaguely hear Lance shouting through the rocks. Keith weakly pulled up his sword, ready to fight. The creature turned the corner. If she could grin she would have been. With her four eyes it looked down then back up at Keith, examining her prey.

Keith felt his eye lids drooping against his will. He vigorously blinked and dug his heels into the dirt below him.

No.

He wouldn't make his sacrifice in vain. Lance had people waiting for him back on Earth. Keith wasn't going to let the Baluke harm Lance. If Keith was going to anything with his last breath it was going to be to protect Lance.

* * *

 **A/N: Am I evil enough to leave it here? Yes, yes I am.**

 **Like it? Hate it? Comment below, let me know!**

 **Thank you guys who read this! You guys rock! See you next update ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: The second to last chapter guys! Yay! It's getting intense! Hope you guys enjoy it!**

 **Thank you guys for the support on this fanfic!**

* * *

Considering that Keith was near dying, the force of his push definitely threw Lance off guard, but that moment is what changed everything as Keith the unstable top of the tunnel. The rocks came tumbling down.

"NO! KEITH!"

Lance jumped to his feet but it was too late. He slammed his fist against the rocks, but they didn't budge. He wasn't strong enough. There was nothing he could do. Maybe if he had his bayard he could have blasted through the rocks, but alas, he didn't have it with him.

Lance could unclearly hear noises from the other side. It may have been muffled but he heard the creature giving off a noise like a chuckle. He felt sick just hearing it. Lance let his imagination run wild of what was happening on the other side by just listening. His guesses were not too far from the real deal.

"You remember me, don't you?" Keith provoked. "Do you want me to take another leg? Come on!"

He swung at the Baluke, missing the target. Keith quickly slid under its legs, going back through the passage he and Lance had just come from. He had no energy, but he was somehow moving. It was purely willpower and adrenaline, but he knew he would crash soon, but he had to get the creature as far away from Lance as possible.

Lance heard them leaving.

"Keith, you moron!" Lance slammed his fists against the rocks once again. He knew that Keith didn't have long before the Baluke was able to catch them. He had no choice. If he wanted to save Keith he needed to get out of the tunnels and find the others.

And so, Lance let out a groan and he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, barely giving himself time to mark the sides of the dirt walls.

In the meanwhile, Keith was barely at a jogging speed. He obviously thought he was running faster, but he didn't even realise that the Baluke was only walking after him. Keith knew that the creature was playing with him, but as long as the Baluke's attention was him, it gave Lance more time.

Keith felt his head getting heavier and heavier. He pulled off his helmet, discarding it to his side. It was only a temporary fix, but at least it made him feel lighter for a moment. Keith wasn't watching where he was going and it was needless to say, but he wasn't checking where Lance had marked the walls. He was at a dead end.

The Baluke made some sort of purring sound. She was obviously pleased with the result. Keith felt his bayard slip right through his fingers, letting it materialize back into his armour. He could feel the pull of the venom. It was too strong. He couldn't fight it anymore and he hated himself for it.

Keith wanted to go down fighting, but he had no strength left. After gazing into the Baluke's eyes he came crashing down in seconds.

He quickly fell to the ground. He tried to remain conscious, but the darkness was pulling him under. He had no strength left to fight the unbearable pain or the venom coursing through his veins. The last thing he saw was the Baluke's face, but the last thing he thought was a single phrase.

 _Lance, I'm sorry._

* * *

Lance was hunched over trying to catch his breath. He had only stopped because his vision was beginning to get splotchy and he had a substantial headache. But none of that mattered, he needed to keep going.

He kept screaming at himself that he could have done something. Even though he didn't have his bayard, he still had his shield. But deep down Lance knew that would have been just prolonging an inevitable defeat. They would have both been doomed if it weren't for Keith's bold yet idiotic choice to separate them. Keith saved him again. It was already two times too many.

Before Lance could further drown in his own self-hate and blame, he felt something. Even with the headache he had felt it brush past him.

It felt like a breeze of air. He didn't know if it was real or a part of his imagination, but he turned the corner. He expected to see what he always saw, another crossroads only illuminated by the blue glow of the crystals, but that is not what he saw. What Lance saw was light at the end of the tunnel, and it wasn't in the metaphorical sense, it was a literal light at the end of tunnel. The light streamed through vines, but it was definitely the light of one of the three suns nearby the planet.

His walked slowly picked up in speed and he ran. The next thing he knew he was outside. The sudden change of lighting didn't help his headache, but Lance didn't mind. It wasn't a hallucination, it wasn't a mirage. It was real, he was finally outside. Any joy he had experience faded in an instant.

Lance couldn't believe it. It didn't take a lot of time running around, but he had to been sprinting like a mad man around for only a few minutes and he had found the exit. Maybe after ten more minutes of walking and he and Keith would have made it to the exit. To say that Lance was angry would have been a grand understatement.

He needed to find the others fast. Keith was dying and he was just standing around! Lance felt something interrupt his thoughts.

 _Calm down. If you want to help him, you have to remain calm._

His rationality sounded oddly like Keith, but that was just his imagination.

Lance took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Was he still angry? Yes. And was he still panicking? Yes. But he needed to keep a clear head.

The first step was that he needed to find the others and to hopefully find his bayard. Lance had a small squint in his eyes, trying to adjust them to the new lighting. He didn't recognise where he was. It was not near the village or where he had landed his lion. This place was new. Lance got a good look at the area around him.

The tunnel's entrance resembled a cave, hidden by the strands of vines. It looked similar to the area around the village, but with more trees. Lance desperately tried to use his communicator.

"Can anyone here me!? This is Lance! Guys? Please!"

He really didn't know what he was expecting, but all he received was static. Lance let an exasperated grunt.

"I guess I'm just going to do this the old fashioned way." He mumbled to himself.

Lance looked around. Maybe there was something around the place that could tell him how to get the village, like footprints or something. He glanced to the left near the entrance. The Baluke's web was everywhere on the ground. He inspected and dug around at the web, maybe if he was lucky his bayard was stuck to it somewhere, but he didn't find his bayard. Lance gasped.

It had been the smallest amount, but on the web was blood. In that moment, Lance knew that this is where the Baluke bound Keith's shoulder to stop him from bleeding.

"But why?" Lance asked himself. He looked around and his eyes narrowed a red spot near the web. Lance grabbed a fistful of the dirt. It was more blood. Lance stood back up and found more specs of blood in the dirt.

The realisation hit Lance. The Baluke was smart enough to know Keith was losing too much blood to live long enough for her game. She didn't have a sixth sense about his loss of blood from his shoulder; she must have seen it for herself.

Keith must have kept bleeding as she was dragging the both of them to the underground tunnels. Keith's blood would have left a trail.

Lance stood back up, frantically scanning the ground. He had guessed right. There was another patch of blood not far from patch he had found.

"Eat your heart out, Sherlock." Lance murmured to himself, closely following the trail.

The trail would be able to at lead him back to the village, getting back his bayard and to his lion. He was half crouched down, stalking past, following for the signs of blood.

When he finally moved to stand up straight, he walked head first into a branch. Coran wasn't kidding when he said that the trees on Zilate had a metal like quality, even with his helmet it hurt. Not even thinking, Lance angrily slapped away the branch. It flung back at him with an immense force.

 _THWACK!_

The next thing he realised he was on the ground. To say he was seeing stars would have been odd considering he was in space, but that was the best way Lance could describe it. He had to admit that he wasn't thinking straight when he had hit the branch. Lance let out a long and frustrated shout. He was just wasting time.

* * *

Shiro led the way, following the trail of blood. Pidge managed to wipe away the remains of the blood on her face with a little help from Hunk.

"Wait!" Shiro whispered, glancing at something in the distance. He signalled for Pidge and Hunk to hide behind the trees, following his example.

Shiro was ready to activate his arm and Hunk and Pidge prepared to summon their bayards, but that was before they heard the yell.

Pidge knew that yell. It was a yell she would hear from the other side of the campus back in the Garrison the night before a test.

"Wait a second." Pidge took another long look at the figure in the distance.

It took a moment, but Hunk registered the familiarity of the shriek. Hunk knew for a fact that it was Lance. He was used to being in closer range of hearing it, but that was no surprise considering that he and Lance shared a dormitory.

"Lance!" Hunk called out, stepping away from the trees.

Shiro peeped around from his tree, taking a look for himself. The distant figure immediately shot up, looking toward them.

"Hunk!?"

If Shiro wasn't sure before, he was in that moment. The voice without a single doubt was Lance. They all ran toward each other. Hunk thought it was a spur of happiness of how Lance was running at them because he wasn't just running, he was sprinting.

Hunk grabbed a hold of Lance almost squeezed the life out of him in an embrace.

"You're okay!" Pidge exclaimed happily, grabbing unto Lance as well. But the happiness was short lived as Lance squirmed in Hunk's arms, sounding like he was speaking in tongues.

By letting go of Lance, it gave the three paladins the opportunity to get a good look at Lance and he looked horrible. Lance had dried blood against the side of his face and over his armour.

"Follow me! Now!" Lance yelled.

No one had the chance to ask what Lance was going on about before he was running again. The other three paladins had no choice but to run after him.

"Lance, slow down!" Shiro called out. He had only managed to get a hold of him once Lance stopped running.

They were in front of the entrance of a cave and it just didn't look right. It screamed of danger.

"What happened?" Shiro asked sternly, but also calmly. Shiro's eyes glanced down to the blood on Lance's armour.

Lance gasped having a look for himself. With the lighting of the crystals, he didn't see the blood on his chest plate. The memory of seeing the blood clotting appeared in his mind. It made him feel sick.

"It's not mine." Lance said, his voice remained low in his reply.

Shiro felt his heart sink. It wasn't an unknown fact that Keith wasn't with Lance, and with Lance without injuries, his fears could only be confirmed.

"Lance," Shiro always sounded calm, but in that moment he wasn't. "Where's Keith?"

Lance didn't want to waste any time. He took a large gulp of air and began speedily explaining.

"There's this creepy monster thing that got me and Keith and took us deep underground. So many zilatians are in the underground tunnels. The monster-the Baluke, has been eating them by playing a sort of hunting game. The passages are like a maze. Keith and I tried to escape, but the Baluke found us and Keith…." Lance slowed down, not looking Shiro in the eye. "Keith got hurt protecting me. He got stabbed by one of the stingers. And Keith purposely separated himself from me to lure away the creature."

"So the blood we've been seeing…" Shiro didn't need to finish before Lance was nodding.

"It's his." Lance confirmed. "It's all my fault."

Shiro placed a hand on Lance's shoulder.

"No it's not," Shiro reassured. "The only one that deserves the blame is the monster that did this. We'll get him back."

Lance shook his head, "You didn't see him, Shiro. The venom….Shiro, Keith was literally dying right in front of me. If we don't get to him soon, we'll lose him."

There was no long silence to ponder at the new information as Allura's voice sparked up on the working communicators.

 _"Paladins, sorry it took so long, but the ships have been dealt with. Any news about Lance and Keith?"_

Without hearing the voice through his own communicator, Lance knew it was Allura. He instantly wrestled Hunk's helmet from his head. It startled Hunk and he stared at Lance as he held it near his ear.

"Princess!" He screamed into Hunk's helmet.

 _"Lance, thank the stars! Wh-"_

"Allura, listen to me, we're running out of time!" Lance snapped. "You need to be waiting for us outside this very same tunnel ready to get Keith in a healing pod or he's not going to make it!"

No one dared to argue with Lance and it wasn't just because Keith's life was on the line, but it was also because Lance was being frighteningly serious.

"Alright." Pidge was the first to speak. "But first, Allura and Coran are going to need a sample of the venom from the creature in order to create an anti-venom."

"We're going in now," Shiro informed Allura. "We're east from the village near our lions and where we left the dismembered legs. The tunnel we're about to enter must have been the place you were talking about with the crystals. We'll all need to be ready."

 _"I understand. Coran and I will be landing soon. Everyone, please be careful. Goodluck."_

Lance tossed Hunk's helmet back to him.

"Come on, Keith's running out of time!" The authority in Lance's voice threw everyone off. It was such a change for Lance, but it only solidified the gravity of the situation.

"Lance, hold on for a second." Pidge grabbed his arm. "Don't go running off without this."

He was about to shake her off, but he saw what she held in her other hand. It was his bayard. The memory of what happened in the village echoed through his mind. It was now his turn to save Keith. Lance took the bayard from Pidge's hands.

"Thanks." Lance let his bayard materialize back into his armour. He wasn't planning on losing it again any time soon.

Shiro gave Lance a curt nod, "Lead the way."

Entering the tunnel, Lance led the way. They only really understood why Lance had called the tunnels a maze once they saw it for themselves. However, Lance led the way with confidence and they ran.

"This way." Lance pointed down the left passage, bolting down the passage.

"How do you know that we're going the right way?" Hunk asked, nervousness was lingering in his voice.

Lance pointed to the dirt wall as they ran past. "I marked them."

The others were impressed with the idea, but they couldn't say that they were surprised. Lance was smarter than most would give him credit for.

"Lance, what can you tell us about the creature?" Shiro asked. "We need to know what we're up against."

Memories surfaced and it made Lance's skin crawl.

"Well, the creature, she's smart. Her skin deflects any shots, so mine and Hunk's bayards aren't going to do much except make her mad. Keith managed to cut off two of her legs, but it took a lot of force. In each of her legs, she has retractable stingers laced in venom."

"How are we meant to stop this thing?" Pidge asked aloud.

"We'll figure it out." Shiro reassured the three paladins, but honestly he had no idea. It wasn't that it was false hope, but he did have a lot to think about.

They stopped at the mass of rocks. Lance could only stare for a moment. Echos of the conversation he had with Keith repeated in his mind. A twinge of guilt and what felt to be a pain in his chest lingered.

"This is where we got separated." Lance said, swallowing the lump in his throat.

Hunk didn't spare another moment as pulled out his bayard, holding his cannon up.

"Alright, everyone might want to stand back." Hunk let out only a few shots and the rocks were knocked away, clearing the path.

"Go Hunk." Pidge smiled at the destruction.

They had barely been running again for more than a minute when they saw something clearly out of place. It was Keith's red helmet. Lance would have gone to grab it if hadn't froze where he stood. Pidge picked it up, glancing back to the other paladins with pure terror in her eyes.

"Lance, how much further?" Shiro asked, the impatience in his voice was something the other paladins had never heard before. It scared them.

"Not much. When we stop seeing markings on the wall, keep an eye on the ground for footprints," Lance replied, "This way."

Lance could barely remember where he had run around before he started marking the dirt walls, but he willed it to happen. There was no choice. It's either he remembered quickly or Keith would die, and Lance was not going to let Keith die.

He took a left and then a right. Lance made sure to mark past the walls so to get out that they didn't need to guess. Calling his decision to randomly choosing where to go lucky would have been an understatement. Without a single false turn he had gone the correct way. Lance saw his and Keith's footprints imprinted in the passage floor. Some sort of higher force must have been looking out for them because it was just too auspicious. Lance knew exactly where to go from there.

"This way!" Lance continued to run down the passage.

The paladins arrived in the centre of the underground passages. It was where Lance first awakened strung up by webs. The others felt their eyes go wide upon seeing the hundreds of zilatians strung up. The blue lighting from the crystals may have been dim, but Lance spotted Xi'lek coughing in the distance.

"Xi'lek!" Lance ran over to the zilatian. The alien perked up, eyes widening at the sight of Lance.

"Lance? But how?"

"I am here with my team just like I said." Lance said while the other three paladins approached them.

Xi'lek would have smiled, but he had important news. He coughed again before he told Lance what he saw.

"Your friend in red, Keith, the Baluke has him. I saw her taking him into her den."

"Where? How long ago?" Shiro asked, stepping closer over to the zilatian.

Xi'lek cocked his head to the passage in the centre. "She took him in there not too long ago. If you hurry you may still be able to save him. She likes to play with her food first. The Baluke does not like to eat dead things."

They weren't too late, but they were running out of time. Lance summoned his bayard ready to run in, but luckily Shiro grabbed him before he could do anything stupid.

"Hold on. We can't just run in." Shiro struggled to keep his grip on Lance's arm.

"We don't have time!" Lance snapped trying to wrestle his arm from his leaders grip.

"I have a plan," Shiro said. "So listen to me."

Lance was lucky Shiro was a patient man. Lance let his impulse calm down. Lance wasn't normally the type to be hot-headed, but to be fair he was stressed, but he also knew that it didn't excuse his behaviour. Lance let out a large sigh, he had to keep his head clear. The pain in his head had to be what made him think irrationally, but he could worry about it after they saved Keith.

"What do you suggest?"

* * *

They snuck into the passage spread out from each other. They found themselves in another large area filled with crystals, but it was also covered with bones. No doubt they were the bones of previous victims.

To add to the atmosphere, the area was filled with a wretched smell. It took Hunk everything not to vomit. The source of the smell was coming from nearby piles of the Baluke's excrement. To describe the area in one word, it would be 'vile'. However, with the piles of faecal matter it did provide a good cover.

Lance activated his bayard, peeking around the faeces. The plan was about to be thrown into action. He spotted the Baluke, but more importantly, he saw Keith lying on the ground. Lance felt something within him drop. Keith's skin looked clammy and grey his face and his lip was chapped and turning blue.

It was hard to tell if Keith was alive, but he took comfort in remembering what Xi'lek had said. The Baluke didn't eat dead things. At least, he just hoped that Xi'lek was right.

The Baluke reached out a leg toward Keith, tracing down his face to his torso. It was obvious that if the Baluke could speak, she would have said something along the lines of: 'Hush now, it'll all be over soon', like a pale imitation of a mother comforting her child.

Seeing this made Lance's blood boil. His grip tightened around his bayard, he had enough of watching from the shadows.

The Baluke's mouth was a few inches away from devouring Keith when Lance stepped out into the open. Lance let out a high pitched whistle causing the creature to stop. The Baluke's head snapped in his direction, upon seeing Lance, her head tilt to the side. No doubt she recognised Lance, but more importantly she looked surprised to see him there in her eating den.

"Get away from him." Lance hissed, not sparing another moment as he began shooting at the Baluke.

Lance stayed a good distance back, shooting at the beast. Lance felt a small prickle of a smirk edging at ends of his lips. She was taking his bait and she was coming after him. Her attention was drawn away from Keith.

She was coming at him at full speed. It barely gave Lance time to yell out the signal.

"NOW!"

Pidge emerged from the shadows and she shot out her bayard's grapple, tripping the Baluke. Hunk managed to grab Keith, dragging him out of danger. Hunk immediately checked for a pulse. It was barely noticeable, but it was there.

"Keith's still alive!" Hunk exclaimed. Lance felt relief bubble all over him.

Upon hearing this, it gave Shiro encouragement for an extra push and he rapidly gained momentum running. Shiro activated his right arm, striking down at the Baluke's side. Shiro had hit her deep enough for blood to seep out of the wound. The Baluke screamed in pain, writhing around, slamming into Shiro in the process. Shiro had a rough landing and tumbled against the ground, groaning in pain.

The red in the Baluke's eyes were glowing with rage. She was out for blood. The Baluke revealed two stingers from two of her legs.

"Hunk, now!" Shiro shouted, getting back on his feet.

After Shiro's command, Hunk materialized his bayard and tried to shoot at the new blood soaked target. The Baluke backed off, dodging Hunk and Lance's blast from hitting her new weak spot. She caught on what they trying to do and she did everything she could to shield her wound.

"This isn't going to work unless we make the target bigger!" Hunk yelled over the sound of his cannon. "We have to at least double its size."

"On it!" Pidge shouted, shooting out the grapple once more around the nearest leg.

The grapple wrapped around the leg, sending a massive shockwave through the Baluke. The creature screeched and flung her leg back, causing Pidge to fly forwards. The Baluke's eyes instantly shifted toward Pidge. The creature raised her leg with a stinger, ready to attack Pidge.

"Pidge!" Lance exclaimed, expertly aiming for the creature's eyes. The blasts looked like they were only stinging the Baluke's eyes.

Lance succeeded in drawing the Baluke's attention back to him, but it really just made her angrier than doing any harm. Hunk aimed for the stumps that were once her legs. The Baluke started moving around in a fit of rage and her attention shifted toward Shiro, assuming that he was the more vulnerable target.

Of course the Baluke had no clue of Shiro's affinity for close range combat. Shiro did not hold back. The creature attempted attacking Shiro with her stingers. Shiro didn't spend another moment and his arm glowed brighter as he sliced the incoming leg.

As the Baluke backed off screeching in pain Shiro muttered, "That was for Keith."

In the blink of an eye the Baluke sent Shiro flying. The Baluke had lost three legs in one day; she wasn't just losing balance, but also patience. She desperately wanted to kill them. Lance and Hunk tried to shoot at her, but it didn't work. All her attention was on Shiro.

Pidge shot out her grappling hook and it circled around four of the Baluke's legs. It tripped the creature, but even tripped over, the Baluke spat out web and Shiro got caught in the range. The web pinned Shiro to the dirt wall, leaving him immobile.

"Shiro!" Pidge yelled, quickly activating her bayard's special feature causing it to shock the Baluke.

The Baluke was obviously in pain, but she still managed to shoot webs at Pidge. It pinned Pidge was directly to the dirt wall behind her. The creature popped out a fresh stinger and directly stalked toward her.

"Leave her alone!" Lance shouted. He and Hunk shot at the Baluke.

The Baluke decided that Hunk was closer and she knocked Hunk out of the way, slamming him against the wall. In order to protect Hunk, Lance yelled, provoking beast more.

"Come on, ugly! Is that all you got?"

The Baluke looked back to Lance. The emotion behind her eyes could only be described as pure hate. Lance saw the Baluke coming toward him, but he didn't move.

"Lance, what are you doing!? Move out of the way!" Shiro yelled from the other side, trying to get free from the webs, but Lance didn't listen because he was waiting.

He waited for the creature to open her mouth once again. His finger hovered over the trigger of his blaster. Lance knew he had to time it right or it would be for nothing.

Everything went in slow motion. Lance shut one eye to get a better aim. He let out an exhale to steady his shot. In that moment his thoughts were calm and he was completely aware of every movement the Baluke made. It felt like it was just him and the creature. The Baluke began to open his mouth and Lance found his opening.

 _Now!_

He rapidly shot into the Baluke's mouth before the web had a chance to emerge. The aim was near-perfect. The Baluke screamed at the burning sensation down her throat. It was the perfect opportunity for someone else to strike at the Baluke.

Lance half expected Hunk to be back on his feet and shooting the Baluke, but that's not what he saw next. What he saw next made not just his, but everyone's eyes widened because it could have not been possible. It was impossible.

Keith was meant to be unconscious, dying. It should have not been possible for him to get up and drive his sword into the Baluke's injury that Shiro had made moments before, but that's exactly what Keith had just done.

With an exasperated shout, Keith drove his sword into the wound, opening it up and making it bigger. Keith drew out his sword and collapsed before the Baluke could slam into him.

Hunk didn't need any encouragement to blast at the Baluke's wound. Hunk shot at it with ease, blasting in the creature's insides. Shiro finally broke free from the web by using his galran-tech arm, recovering from his surprise and he climbed up the Baluke. He didn't make the same mistake of only striking once. Shiro repeatedly hit at the Baluke. Blood came pouring from each blow. It had been so gruesome that Pidge couldn't help but look away.

Hunk and Shiro kept attacking until the Baluke finally fell. It let out a massive whine and collapsed to the ground with a massive thud. It was like hearing a building fall. The Baluke slowly let out a slow and long final exhale until she stopped moving altogether. With her glazed eyes and lack of movement, it didn't take a genius to tell that the Baluke was finally dead.

They had won.

Lance didn't spare another moment as he ran over to Keith. Lance pulled Keith up into his arms. Lance held the back of Keith's head in one hand and he cradled him with the other. Keith wasn't conscious. If Lance was being entirely honest, he didn't even think that Keith was conscious when he had stabbed the Baluke moments prior.

"Keith? Hey, c'mon. Can you hear me?"

At this point, Hunk had helped free Pidge and the two quickly joined Lance. Pidge pressed two fingers on Keith's wrist. After a moment she tore off her helmet and pressed her ear down near Keith's mouth.

"He's barely got a pulse. I felt his breath, but it's weak." Pidge frantically informed. Panic was taking over her expression.

Shiro ran over, pulling Keith from Lance's arms. Shiro gently held Keith in his arms. It was as if he held him wrong, that Keith would shatter.

"I'll get him out of here. Let's just hope Allura is outside already waiting."

"Wait." Lance instantly grabbed on to Shiro's arm. He not only surprising Shiro, but also himself. Lance knew he had no reason to argue, but he felt a protective impulse overcome him. He didn't want to leave Keith, not after last time.

Shiro seemed to understand and he just gave Lance a curt nod.

"Lance, trust me. I'll get him out of here safe. Go help the Zilatians."

 _It's Shiro, trust him. Let go._ Lance told himself.

He was still reluctant, but he let go and Shiro was off. Lance wanted to question why he had felt such a surge of reluctance, but all he could do was hope that Shiro would keep his word. In the meanwhile he and the others had to help the zilatians.

 _Keith, hold on. Please._

* * *

Keith was quiet the entire time Shiro ran with him. But that was until his breaths were getting louder and hitched. Shiro was no doctor, but he knew that Keith's life was hanging by a thread.

"Come on, buddy. You can make it! Just hold on!" Shiro half yelled.

Shiro followed the markings and ran faster, he recognized the rocks from the blocked path and he kept running. Shiro saw the light of the exit, but that's when Keith's haggard breathing stopped.

"No, no, no, no!" Shiro muttered, running straight out of the tunnel.

It had to have been a miracle that the castle was a few feet away from the entrance of the tunnel. Allura and Coran came rushing out seeing Shiro. Dropping to his knees, Shiro lied Keith on the ground.

"He stopped breathing!" Shiro said, through pants of his own breath.

Allura checked his pulse. There was nothing. There was no heart beat and he wasn't breathing. Shiro saw the look on Allura's face, she looked horrified. Shiro knew what that look meant. He shook his head in disbelief.

"No," He said. "No, he can't be…" Before Shiro could fall apart, Allura looked up determined.

"Take off his chest plate!" Allura commanded. "Now!"

Shiro took a second to register that Allura was planning something, so he complied and practically ripped the armour off Keith's body. Coran pulled out a syringe and plunged it into Keith's chest, injecting the transparent content within Keith, but more specifically right into Keith's heart.

"Let's hope this works." Coran muttered.

Before Shiro could question what it was, Keith's body suddenly jerked upwards for a moment it sounded like he was struggling but he took in a small breath. His eyes opened for a moment, but quickly shut again and he fell back down.

"What was that?" Shiro asked.

"It's similar to what you humans call adrenaline. It has restarted his heart. I didn't think we'd have to use it, but Coran insisted on taking it just in case." Allura replied, obviously relieved at the swift revival of the red paladin.

Allura pulled out another syringe with a pale yellow substance. She gently injected the substance straight into Keith's injured shoulder. Keith's body stopped tensing and he let a small breath of relief out. It looked like the pain within him was temporarily soothed.

"That should start reversing the effects of the venom, but he needs a healing pod. Quickly now!" Coran said, slight relief that Keith was alright leaked from his voice.

Shiro gently scooped Keith back into his arms and half jogged inside the castle straight to the healing pods with Allura following closely behind.

It was only when Shiro heard the tiniest groan in his arms did he look down at Keith. Slowly Keith's eyes fluttered open for a moment, looking up at Shiro. Keith's voice was quiet, but Shiro still heard him.

"Shiro?" Keith croaked with a questioning tone. Keith recognized him, which was a good sign.

"Shhhh." Shiro hushed, letting something similar to parental instinct take over. "Save your strength. We're almost there, buddy. You're safe. You're going to be okay." Shiro soothed.

Keith didn't listen to Shiro's advice and he said one distinct name.

"Lance?" Keith was trying to ask where he was, but more importantly, if he was safe. Shiro wasn't surprised.

"He's safe." Shiro gave him a soft smile.

As soon as Shiro said that, Keith shut his eyes. Keith was unconscious again, but he had the smallest smile. It almost looked like he was relieved and by knowing Lance was safe, he could finally rest. Shiro placed him in the healing pod. Allura finished up the rest and activated the healing pod.

* * *

It felt like hours, but the three remaining paladins freed the zilatians from their prisons of web. Lance had helped Xi'lek down first. With every adult zilatian that still had strength to move, they helped others get the others down.

Many of the children that still had energy just cried, others just slept in the comforting arm of a family member. They had all lost someone they cared about to the Baluke, they were all that were left. But for now they were all just glad for the lives they didn't lose.

Lance led the way out. Many zilatians cried tears of joy at the sight of sunlight. They were finally free from the nightmare and it was all thanks to the paladins of Voltron.

Shiro, Allura, and Coran rushed around with medical supplies and rations. Through the crowds, the three paladins tried to hunt down Shiro. There were so many zilatians that it was hard to tell where they were. Pushing through the crowds, they quickly helped any zilatian who needed it. Eventually the crowds spread out and the three paladins saw Shiro and Allura.

"How's Keith?" Pidge was the first to ask what they were all thinking. All their hearts clenched as they prepared for an answer.

Shiro's neutral expression shifted to a small smile.

"It was a close call, but he'll be alright." Allura informed. "He's not quite out of danger yet, but he should be alright

Lance honestly didn't listen to what Allura said. All he cared about in that moment was that Keith was alive.

Pidge and Hunk let themselves smile and they felt relief flow over them. Lance let out the largest laugh of relief because Keith was going to be okay.

* * *

 **A/N: Keith lives! Wooooo! And the Baluke's dead! Woooooo!**

 **One chapter left to go! The next chapter will deal with the repercussions so ANGST! Be prepared guys! Mwahhahahahahha**

 **BUT IMPORTANT NEWS: The next chapter will take a little longer due to my hectic schedule (I'm graduating school) So the final update should be between 1-2 weeks. Sorry for the wait guys, but I'll try to get it out ASAP.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey guys. It's been a while, but after seeing the length of this chapter I think you'll see why. This by far is the longest chapter I've written for anything. All I will say is that the word counts from the previous 4 chapters combined adds to the amount of words in this chapter. It was originally going to be split into two, but I thought it would interrupt the flow of the story too much and here we are.**

 **After multiple re-writes and deleted content, I present you with the final chapter of Hunted.**

 **Thank you all for who read, favorited, reviewed, and followed. I love you guys.**

* * *

"I think he's breathing weird." Pidge said, pressing her face against the glass of Keith's healing pod.

Keith remained unmoving in the pod. Just like Lance had once worn, Keith was wearing the white infirmary garbs and he looked asleep within the pod. Coran ended up taking off his armour when Keith was out of immediate danger of death.

"Didn't you say the exact same thing when Lance was in there last?" Hunk was right, Pidge had said it before. Hunk's eyebrows furrowed. "I think he just twitched."

Shiro kept a few feet away with his arms crossed, whilst Lance paced back and forth, not being able to stand still.

"That gives more reason for us not to worry." Shiro tried to add some optimism, but in reality he had to be the most worried aside from Lance.

"Shiro's right," Allura piped in. "Like I said before, Keith is recovering; his shoulder is now fully healed. It shouldn't be much longer now."

"I got pretty much blown up and it took one day for me to heal," Lance joined into the conversation, "Why is it taking so long?"

"Well, no human should have been able to survive what Keith endured," Coran answered. "He's definitely unique, I'll give him that."

Lance's face fell as Coran's first sentence rang through his head. Shiro and Allura gave Coran a single look and the message was clear that he had said too much. Neither of the three of them had told Lance or Pidge and Hunk about Keith's death. Even though it had been temporary they all agreed that it should be kept a secret.

Keith was alive and that's what mattered. The three of them weren't foolish; they knew that if they told any of them, Lance especially, that it would only lead to more pointless guilt.

"I would say that's enough gawking. We should head back to the villages." Allura suggested.

The paladins began clearing out one by one until Lance was the last one to linger in the room. Lance glanced back to Keith in his healing pod. Keith was always pale, but Lance could see the colour returning to his face.

Lance found himself thinking back to it all.

Three days. It had been three days since the paladins defeated and killed the Baluke. Three days since the paladins freed the people of Zilate. Three days since Keith was placed in the healing pod.

When the paladins finally had a quiet moment, they told Lance that they found out that it was the galra that had made the Baluke. Lance had to walk off his fury. He remembered what he yelled down the halls.

" _Why is it that when something bad happens to us that it is always the Galra! When I manage to get my hands on at least one of them, I'm gonna-"_

He never got to finish. He was quickly calmed down by Hunk moments after.

It also turned out that Lance had a concussion. He wasn't surprised, but he kept insisted that he didn't need to be treated. Eventually, Hunk and Pidge had got him to sit down long enough to clean the cut on his head. Lance honestly didn't care about his condition. His was nothing in comparisons to Keith's.

In those three days, Keith showed no signs of waking up. Allura had assured the other paladins that it was normal. It was since Keith's condition was so critical that it was only natural that it would take a while to heal. Keith's shoulder began to heal and mend itself within the first two days. It looked as if he had never gotten the injury in the first place. There was no scarring and no stitches were needed. The healing pods were definitely something else.

The castle of lions remained on Zilate within those days. The Zilatians suffered devastating losses. Team Voltron did what they could which was to only rebuild. It kept everyone busy, but despite this Lance would check on Keith as often as he could.

Not that Lance would admit to it, but when everyone else slept he would sit by Keith's healing pod and just talk. It wasn't much of a conversation, it was very one-sided, but in some odd way Lance hoped that maybe one of them would find comfort in it. Lance would talk about his life's story, throwing in the occasional joke that got no reply (not that it was any different from before).

In all honesty, Lance couldn't sleep at nights anyway. Every time he shut his eyes, all he saw was the Baluke and Keith dying in front of him. By just sitting by Keith's healing pod it reminded him that Keith was alive. He needed the reassurance. It didn't help that Lance felt guilt over everything. His own thoughts plagued him with 'it's all your fault' and 'it should have been you'. Lance just tried his best to shut it out and to deal with it himself.

Lance was suddenly drawn out of his train of thought by a firm hand on his shoulder.

"He'll be here when we get back." Shiro gave a comforting and gentle squeeze. Lance nodded and turned around, walking with Shiro on the way out.

"I've been meaning to ask, but how are you holding up?" Lance asked. It earned a small confused head tilt from Shiro. Lance explained, "Well, you've known Keith longer than any of us."

Shiro blinked at Lance. He was completely put off guard at the question, but eventually Shiro just sighed. He let down his façade, but only for a few moments.

"I'm just as worried as you are," Shiro looked hesitant for a moment before speaking. "I know you've talking to him every night,"

Lance felt something like embarrassment just flood through him. He thought he had kept the secret well.

"Don't worry, I haven't been eavesdropping. And besides, I'm sure that whatever you've been talking about is nothing to be ashamed of," Shiro reassured. "In all honesty, I haven't been able to sleep either. I don't think anyone really has been sleeping. I've seen Pidge tinkering and Hunk in the kitchen when we're meant to be resting."

Lance glanced at the ground below.

"It's weird, isn't it? Just a few days ago, Keith and I hardly spoke to each other and I'm only now talking to him when he can't hear me,"

Shiro shook his head.

"I think he can hear more than you think. He's always been more of the kind of person to listen rather than talk. I know he'd appreciate you being there."

Lance felt a smile trying to break its way to the surface. He thought for a moment and he realised something he had never questioned before.

"You know, I don't think I've ever asked, but how are you and Keith so close?" Lance asked. "I mean, I know you used to personally mentor Keith back at the Garrison, but there wasn't much of a story behind it,"

Shiro started to smile, obviously recalling a fond memory.

"I think I'll let Keith tell you that story," Shiro laughed. "But I guess all you need to know is that he's someone I care about and trust." Shiro smiled.

To say the beginning of Shiro's and Keith's friendship was rocky would have been an understatement. When Shiro first met him, Keith was a completely different person. If it also weren't for Shiro, Keith would have never learned how to trust another person. Shiro was Keith's first true friend.

Keith had changed so much after becoming friends with Shiro and every day by being a part of Voltron, Keith was still changing. Shiro didn't know exactly how, but what he did know is that Keith was becoming a happier person because of it. Shiro couldn't explain it, but it made him feel proud.

If Shiro had to be sincerely honest, Keith was like a little brother to him. He would have told Lance, but he felt that his and Keith's past was a story for another time. For now, they had to help rebuild a broken society.

As for Lance, he was rather satisfied with that answer. It made Lance oddly glad that Keith actually had someone that cared about him before the whole Voltron thing went down. But it did make him realise that he didn't know a lot about Keith. Lance only knew what Keith had told him in the tunnels. Perhaps that would change after he woke up.

Shiro and Lance placed their helmets back on to their heads. Those thoughts were best kept for later.

* * *

It had been a mess when they had all first tried to rebuild the nearby village. It was decided that paladins were to be split up, Lance and Pidge becoming head leaders of groups of zilatians to help rebuild the villages. Lance and Pidge remained in the first village with Xi'lek most of the time, whilst Allura and Coran acted as the mediators between the two.

Xi'lek explained that in each village there was a leader elder. He was the last left alive. Whilst it didn't throw the zilatians into chaos without having a higher power, they worked together to rebuild and Xi'lek was burdened with many more duties.

The zilatians decided to re-build the villages closer to one another since their numbers were scaled down. In fact, a large ceremony was held on the second day for the departed. Xi'lek did the final rites for all of their dead. It was in their belief that there was no permanent death, that life would always begin anew once more and they would be reborn. However, it didn't make the grieving process any more comforting for the zilatians.

In the meanwhile, Shiro and Hunk were in charge of fixing the underground passages. They properly lit up the correct passages and gave it more direction. The zilatians had been violated in many ways due to the Baluke and they no longer wanted the creature near their sacred crystals. Shiro and Hunk with the help of many zilatians managed to move the Baluke's body out of the tunnels. Many of the grieving zilatians went looking for their loved ones remains in the Baluke's den. Most of them just came out with nothing and just more sorrow than before.

Lance and Pidge were no expert architects on zilatian buildings. They felt completely underprepared to be in charge. The pair was just thankful that they had Xi'lek doing most of the ordering around.

Pidge ended up carrying one too many stones. She was beginning to stumble and her arms were going numb, but she stubbornly did not want to drop them. That was when she spotted Lance. It appeared that he was finger painting a smiley face on a stone. Pidge blinked, had she just seen right? She got a closer look. It turned out that she had been correct.

"Lance, why are you painting a smiley face on that rock? And where did you even find paint?" Pidge asked.

Lance looked away from his "masterpiece" and wiped the yellow paint(?) from his hand on to the dirt below.

"Well this is meant to be the sign that goes over the school building and I thought that when kids see a smiley face it would actually make them want to go," Lance explained with a smirk, quickly noticing that Pidge looked ready to drop the rocks right then and there. "And Xi'lek showed me that when you crush some specific bugs, it makes a paste like paint."

"Nice," Pidge wanted to smile, but she was so close to dropping the stones. "While that dries could you help me carry some stone over to the house over there?"

Lance folded his arms across his chest. The smirk was growing on his face.

"I don't know," Lance let out a breath sarcastically, "It looks like you can handle that on your own."

Pidge stared at Lance incredulously. Did he really want to play this game with her?

"I have pictures of you cuddling a teddy bear in your sleep." Pidge stated. Her expression remained deadpanned.

"What?" Lance squeaked.

"The teddy bear you slept with when we were back at the Garrison, hiding in the third draw of your cupboard so Hunk wouldn't find it. If I'm correct it's the same bear that your mom got you when you were six. What did you call it? Mr snuggles?" Pidge had a small and devious twinkle appear in her eyes.

Lance stood there with his jaw dropped and his eyes wide.

"If you don't help me now, the secrets out and I'm showing everyone the pictures." Pidge threatened.

Lance gasped and stuttered. "Y-You're bluffing,"

"You really want to take that chance?" Pidge wasn't playing around. She had the ammunition and she was ready to fire.

Lance immediately took half of the stones from Pidge's miniature tower. He knew Pidge well and he wasn't going to risk it.

"You leave Mr Snuggle-Buns out of this," Lance glared, an angry pout was growing on his face. "How did you even find out about that?"

Pidge just grinned. "I have my ways."

"You're evil." Lance hissed, holding the stones closer to him.

"I know, and I love it." Pidge replied back with the grin on her face growing. She walked ahead allowing Lance to wallow in the fact of Pidge knowing one of his darkest secrets.

Funnily enough, Pidge actually had an entire USB flash drive full of blackmail worthy pictures of Lance and Hunk in her bag back in the Castle of Lions, but they didn't need to know that. Pidge glanced back for a moment to see Lance shaking his head at her with a smile beginning to show on his face.

 _He's starting to act normal again at least._ She thought. Pidge couldn't help but sincerely smile.

After grumbling for a while, Lance eventually began to take the stones over to the house. It was when Lance was carrying the stones that he saw a nearby zilatian child playing with a doll, but it wasn't any doll, it had been the doll Keith found when they first searched the village.

Lance didn't mean to stare, but he couldn't help it. He remembered when Keith had been holding the doll. It happened moments before their communicators stopped working. It happened before the Baluke first attacked. It happened before Keith pushed him out of the way-

"Lance, may I speak with you?" Xi'lek drew Lance out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Y-Yeah," Lance put the stones down, dusting the dirt from his hands, "What's up?"

Xi'lek took Lance by the arm and walked over to somewhere more private.

"Many of my people and I have agreed that we must commence in another ceremony."

"Another ceremony?" Lance cocked his head to the side. "Why's that?"

"It is for what you would call a precaution. This afternoon everyone wishes to gather for a ceremony to free the souls of those devoured by the Baluke."

Lance nodded, "Okay. Sounds good,"

Xi'lek began to look sheepish, "Well, Lance, I ask you to help me."

"How?"

"During the ceremony I will start a fire and bless it. The fire should cleanse and release any lingering quintessence of the departed. I was hoping that you, having been one of the warriors to stop her, would want the honour of setting the Baluke ablaze."

Lance's mouth parted in a silent gasp. He had not been near the body of the Baluke since she had died. When Hunk and Shiro finished pulling out her carcass out from the underground tunnels, Lance had refused to go see it. He didn't plan on setting eyes on it again, but now Xi'lek was asking him to set the Baluke's body on fire, leaving nothing left.

"I'll be glad to do it."

* * *

The suns were setting and everyone had been informed of the ceremony. Hunk had finished repeatedly asking if Lance was okay with doing it for the fifth time when Lance finally gave a proper reply.

"Hunk, I need to do this, if not for my sake, but for the zilatians." _And for Keith._ Whilst it went unsaid, it was very clear. The sole purpose of the ceremony was for closure. Lance was just slightly saddened that Keith wasn't there to witness it.

Everyone stood around and they watched Xi'lek do the ceremony. No one seemed to notice that midway through the ceremony, Allura and Coran slipped away from the crowds in a rush.

Xi'lek spoke in the zilatian native tongue and he and three other zilatians threw buckets of a transparent fluid over the Baluke. Xi'lek started a fire with two stones on to a pile of branches. The fire raged and Xi'lek lit a torch, handing to Lance.

Lance stiffly walked over the Baluke with the torch in hand. Being up close to it once more was unsettling. He stared at the Baluke's body, only inches away with the flaming torch.

Everything that the Baluke had done would linger with the consequences. Death seemed far too generous. But that's when Lance remembered what he had been told. The monster had been created by the Galra. They were to blame. The Galra started the intergalactic war and it was up to Voltron to stop it. Every one of the paladins had something to bring to Voltron, whether it was brains, brawn or both. But what did he have to offer? Lance had questioned it before, but it never had more meaning until that moment.

 _Why did Keith save me? I'm not important._ Lance thought to himself. _I bring nothing to this team. It should be me in that healing pod._

When Lance wasn't immediately setting the Baluke on fire and just staring at, the others exchanged a glance of worry. It was a good few seconds that Lance didn't move that Shiro became prepared to step in, but Lance moved the torch toward the Baluke finally setting it on fire.

The fluid that the zilatians were throwing over the Baluke was extremely flammable. The fire spread all over the Baluke's body in moments. Lance was forced to back off from the body and watch from a far.

It gave a horrid stench, but it was endurable. They all stayed and watched as the flames danced on the Baluke's body. The paladins stayed until all that was left were smouldering piles of ash. Lance was the last person to keep staring at the remains.

"Are you okay?" Shiro asked.

Lance silently nodded as a reply.

"We should head back, it's getting dark." Shiro said.

The paladins turned around, not gazing at the Baluke's remains for a moment longer. It was over. It was on the way back to the castle that Hunk finally asked something that had been bothering him.

"Hey, does anyone know why Allura and Coran left the ceremony?"

Shiro stopped in his tracks and turned to Hunk.

"Wait what?"

"You didn't notice?" Hunk questioned.

"I didn't." Pidge chimed in, her eyes wide. Hunk looked to Lance whom had the same expression as Shiro and Pidge.

"Am I really the only one that noticed?" Hunk sheepishly asked.

The four of them exchanged a look to one another and rushed back to the castle. Immediately they could tell that something was amiss.

"Princess?" Shiro called out. He led the way, ready to spring into action if he needed to. Shiro had been so on edge, that he almost punched Coran in the face when he came around the corner.

"Ah! Paladins. Come this way," Coran was smiling. "Sorry to rush off during the ceremony, but Allura's alert began beeping and we needed to go,"

"Alert?" Pidge asked. Allura and Coran never mentioned anything to do with an alert. The honest truth was that they neglected to tell them because they didn't want their hopes to get up.

"For the healing pods," Coran answered. "What else?"

It was Lance who was the first to realise what that meant. Lance's face immediately lit up.

"Wait, so you mean that he's…?" Lance didn't need to finish.

Coran nodded.

"Keith's awake,"

Before the paladins could ask, Coran explained the situation as well as he could.

"Whilst he's awake and out of the healing pod, he is still quite weak, but that was to be expected. He should be up and around in a few days. Allura and I took him back to his room. We're running a few tests to make sure he's healed enough,"

That's all they needed to hear. They all rushed past Coran making their way to Keith's room.

"Wait! You didn't let me finish explaining!" Coran knew it was pointless and he sighed. "Earthlings."

The paladins barged in to see Keith handing back an empty container of water to Allura. Keith was sitting up, propped up by a pillow. He was still wearing the infirmary garbs and he still looked a little pale, but it was nowhere near as bad as it once was. If anything Keith just looked tired.

Keith and Allura both turned their heads toward the others. Allura and even Keith himself smiled upon seeing the others. When Hunk got his hands on Keith he gave him a giant squeeze. Keith was surprised at the sudden contact and he looked very confused, but he never once fought against it.

Allura laughed.

"Take it easy, Hunk, or you might send him back to the healing pod." Allura meant it as a joke, but Hunk quickly let go of Keith as a result.

Shiro gave Keith's shoulder a small pat with a smile.

"It's good to have you back." The relief was evident in Shiro's voice.

Pidge's bottom lip had been quivering and her eyes began to water. Keith barely looked at Pidge for more than a second when she suddenly latched herself around his waist.

"Never do that again." Pidge's voice may have been muffled, but everyone heard it clearly.

Keith looked so confused and panicked; he looked to Shiro as if to silently ask what to do. Shiro just gave him a reassuring smile as if to say 'just go with it'. Keith slowly began to pat Pidge's head with his arm resting on her back.

Lance lingered at the back of the group. He finally felt ready to say something, but what Keith said next made everyone grow silent.

"What was it that I did?"

By their reaction that is when Allura realised that they must have not listened to Coran. Pidge pulled away and joined the others as they all just collectively stared at Keith.

"You don't remember?" Shiro asked.

Keith looked away from Shiro and he began looking around in thought.

"I remember that Lance and I found a village. We were searching the empty houses when our communicators stopped working and then….." Keith was silent for a moment. "….and then it's all hazy from there."

"So you don't remember anything after that?" Shiro inquired, folding his arms across his chest.

Keith opened his mouth to answer, but he quickly shut it again. Allura placed a comforting hand on Keith's shoulder as Coran stepped into the room.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Coran said. "This happens. Sometimes after being in a healing pod for extended amounts of time, they have a few side effects. One of the side effects is temporary memory loss."

"Temporary memory loss?" Keith asked. "So my memories will come back?"

Whilst Allura and Coran had spoken about it amongst the two of them, they hadn't gotten around to telling him.

Allura nodded.

"Give it some time and your memories will likely return," Allura frowned. "But this may be caused by the intensity of the ordeal you endured. So only time will tell."

Keith slowly nodded. He may have been still a little lethargic from coming out of the healing pod, but he could still feel Lance's intense gaze on him. It made him feel uneasy. The whole time he was talking he could feel Lance just staring at him. Keith finally turned his head to face him. The way Lance was looking at him was difficult to explain. It had to be a mix of relief, frustration and confusion. It had so many layers and it just didn't make sense to Keith.

"What?" Keith croaked. "No 'welcome back to the land of the living' or some other remark? I'm surprised with you; you're never usually this quiet. Not that I'm complaining." Keith tried to make it sound like a joke, but it came across as more sarcastic than anything else.

Lance stared for a moment longer and he looked away from Keith. He couldn't look him in the eye.

"Welcome back." Lance's reply was monotonousness.

Keith assumed Lance was being sarcastic and he just looked away with a small shake of the head. Keith didn't know what he expected, but he still found himself feeling an inkling of disappointment.

And that was all that was said between them. Lance wanted to say so much more, but that changed the moment they found out that Keith remembered nothing and just seeing him made everything different than how Lance thought it would play out. He wanted to say so many things, but he could no longer bring himself to say it.

Shiro glanced over to Lance for a moment, confused at the interaction. Shiro decided to step in and do most of the talking. He began explaining to Keith what happened. It was just the basic version. Shiro explained the Galra's involvement in making a creature and that the same creature had gone rogue and ended up capturing the zilatians.

"In the village you and Lance got attacked by the creature."

Lance instantly noticed Keith starting to rub his shoulder. It was the same shoulder that the Baluke had stabbed him with her stinger. Keith didn't seem to realise he was doing it. Keith stopped rubbing his shoulder and he looked down in thought. He tried to recall a trace of the memory, but just ended up frowning and letting out a small grunt of frustration.

"I was in the healing pod for three days so the fight must have got pretty bad, right?" Keith asked.

No one knew how to answer Keith. They all could clearly recall how horrible his injury had been, but they didn't like to dwell on such things. Lance on the other hand, he saw it every time he tried to shut his eyes. Never in Lance's life did he see so much blood. The memories of that day would be with him forever.

"Well," Allura decided to fill the silence. "What really matters is that you're alright now."

Keith was not satisfied with that answer.

"But what exactly happened to me?" Keith looked over to the blue paladin. "Lance?"

All eyes were on Lance. It's when Lance took one glance at Keith's clueless expression that he came to a realisation. He couldn't do it. He couldn't be the one to remind Keith what happened. If anything it was better this way. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Allura may have said that his memories would return in time, but that didn't mean that it had to be soon or that he had to be responsible for reminding him of the pain.

 _It's my fault he got hurt in the first place. I don't want to be what reminds him. I can't._

"Lance," Keith attempted to ask again. "What happened?"

"What's there to tell?" Lance forced a confident tone. "The monster attacked us and we lost the fight. You got hurt pretty bad and we got captured by the creature. We ran for a bit and got separated for a bit, and then we rescued you and the zilatians. Like I said, not much to tell."

This earned a confused look from everyone in the room. Coran even raised an eyebrow at him. Lance just shrugged in response.

"Care to share the actual details?" Keith dubiously asked, obviously growing frustrated.

"Nope," Lance put emphasis on the 'p', making a popping sound. "Get some rest."

Then Lance just walked out of the room without another single word. Everyone was obviously staggered at Lance's ambiguous reply and sudden stride out of the room.

"That's not an answer." Keith grunted and he began to try and get up.

It was obvious that Keith wanted to know what was going on. It was lucky for everyone else that Keith was still weak from the healing pods, otherwise he would have been out the room before they could've stopped him. Keith had barely sat up properly before Coran pushed him back down on to his bed. Keith glared at him, but Coran was unfazed.

"Where do you think you're going? You need to rest." Allura scolded, placing her hands on her hips.

Whilst Keith was rolling his eyes at Allura, Shiro silently looked to Hunk and cocked his head toward the door. Hunk immediately understood.

"I'll go see what's up." Hunk said, leaving the room to go after Lance.

Shiro looked back over to Keith. He was grimacing. Shiro knew Keith to know that he was already getting frustrated.

The truth was that Keith just wanted to know what happened. Having so much time missing from his memory was alarming. He didn't like not knowing.

"Listen," Shiro began. "These past couple of days haven't been easy for Lance. Just give him a little time to adjust. We did almost lose you,"

"Yeah, Shiro's right," Pidge agreed. She sat on the side of bed next to Keith. "Besides, Lance may not be acting like it, but he's just as worried as the rest of us. After what happened to you, I'm not surprised that he doesn't want to talk about it."

"You all keep saying things like that," Keith mumbled. "But what does it all mean? You're just leaving me with more questions, like how hurt was I? You're saying that you almost lost me, how bad did it get? And what happened to the creature? "

"We hadn't gotten around to telling him the details yet." Allura explained.

Shiro nodded and he honestly didn't know how much detail that he should delve into, but he was willing to try his best.

"I'll try to answer any questions you have, okay?" Shiro promised.

Keith knew that Shiro didn't have the all the answers he was looking for, but he also knew it was a start to piecing the puzzle together. Keith sighed in defeat and nodded.

"While they do that I want to do a quick blood test." Coran said, pulling out something that looked like a syringe.

Keith groaned and sunk back down into his pillow.

* * *

Hunk saw Lance walking down at the end of the hall. Hunk had to run to try and catch up before Lance could disappear around the corner.

"Lance! Lance, slow down!" Hunk called out. Lance didn't listen and he kept walking. Hunk managed to halt him at the control deck, grabbing on to Lance's arm so he couldn't avoid the conversation.

"What's going on with you? Why didn't you just tell Keith what happened?" Hunk asked.

Lance tried to pull his arm away, but Hunk only held on tighter. Hunk bit the inside of his mouth. He wasn't sure whether to ask his next question or not, but he ended up saying it anyway.

"You know it's not your fault, right?" Hunk hesitantly asked

Lance froze.

 _Yeah right._

It was a good few moments before Lance finally looked like he was breathing again. He turned around and faced Hunk.

"He doesn't remember any of it," Lance tried to explain himself. "I can't….I won't…."

"Lance, you're not making any sense." Hunk slowly released his grip on Lance's arm. Lance looked Hunk in the eye.

"He doesn't remember, Hunk, but I do. And trust me when I say this, I can't be the one to remind him about it. I won't, I refuse." Lance admitted.

Hunk frowned and his eyes became empathetic. His lips were slightly perked in a joyless lop-sided frown.

"It's been three days since the whole thing went down. Lance, you're my best friend, you tell me everything. If anything you overshare. But not once have you spoken about what happened down in those tunnels before you found us. If that doesn't say something about how bad it was down there in those tunnels for you and Keith then I don't know what to tell you,"

"What are you trying to say?" Lance asked.

"What I'm saying is that I'm with you with whatever you decide to do. I mean, I think you should talk to Keith, but if you say that it's probably better for Keith not to know then I trust your word for it."

"Thanks Hunk." Lance slowly smiled.

Hunk opened up his arms and he slowly started to nod as Lance shook his head.

"Bring it in." Hunk playfully demanded.

Lance snorted with laughter, but eventually complied. It was a good and solid hug, a hug that Lance justly needed. It was times like those that Lance was grateful that Hunk was a paladin as well. Lance may have missed his family, but at least it was bearable with Hunk around. (And Pidge, but she wasn't there. She missed the moment.)

Hunk and Lance spent a good few minutes sitting beside each other and talking. Lance told Hunk about the moment when he and Keith got separated. He didn't go into too much detail, but he told Hunk more than he had told anyone else.

"He had this look in his eyes," Lance held himself, rubbing his arms like they were cold. "It's something I won't be able to forget because I have no doubt that it's the look someone gets when they're ready to die,"

Hunk's eyes went wide as he listened to Lance.

"That's…." Hunk couldn't think of a good word to describe what he thought, so he just went with the first word that made sense. "….That's intense,"

"Yeah, and the worst part is that he was ready to sacrifice himself to save me. He was ready to die for me. I just…" Lance trailed off with a sigh. "…I just don't know how to feel about that."

Hunk was silent for a good few seconds before he replied.

"I'm stumped. I don't know either," Hunk confessed. "And he doesn't remember so it's not like you can talk to him about it or even yell at him about it. I mean, you could yell at him, but he would have no idea what you're talking about,"

Lance slowly turned his head and he gawked at Hunk.

"Thank you, Hunk, for stating the obvious," Lance rolled his eyes. "And that's not even half of what and wanted to talk to him about,"

Hunk let out a large exhale and thought about the whole situation.

"Dude, you're literally between a rock and hard place. If you do talk to Keith about it, it won't do much good because he doesn't remember. You could talk to him about it, but you risk making him remember everything and you don't want that for obvious reasons. But if you don't it's going to chew you up inside because it's something the two of you should talk about."

Lance frowned. Hunk just about summed up a simple version of it. There was still a lot that Lance didn't divulge, like the gruelling guilt that ran through him. Lance kept that to himself. The guilt was his burden and he had no one to blame but himself. At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

Suddenly the pair's conversation was interrupted as Shiro, Pidge and Allura joined them on the observation deck.

"There you are. We've been looking for the two of you." Allura fretted.

"Are you alright?" Pidge asked. "You just walked out."

Lance nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. How is he?"

Shiro was the one to answer.

"Well, I explained what I could. I didn't go into too much detail. I just told what I remember and I went into a little more detail that at some point that the two of you got captured, then separated, then we saved him and we've been helping the zilatians rebuild ever since,"

Pidge nodded.

"The moment Shiro stopped talking, Keith was out. He fell right asleep as Coran was doing a blood test. He was exhausted."

Coran came walking in with perfect timing at the mention of his name.

"I think you all will be happy to know that Keith's blood count is almost back to normal and there is no trace of the venom left throughout his system." Coran stated. "It's lucky that Keith's body was so resilient."

"So he really doesn't remember?" Lance abruptly asked. He knew the answer, but he needed to hear it again from someone else.

Allura looked at him with an unsure expression.

"It may be one of the brief effects from being in the healing pod for so long or it could possibly just be due to the trauma. Like I said before, only time will tell."

"Ok," Lance nodded, placing one hand on his hip as he gazed at the floor in thought.

"You should probably go talk to him about it tomorrow," Shiro suggested. "There were a lot of questions I couldn't answer.

Lance shook his head. "No, I can't,"

"Lance-" Allura didn't get to finish what she was saying.

"None of you were there. You didn't see how he was. I meant what I said. No. N-O. No," Lance replied. "All that matters is that we got out and he's alive. Isn't that enough?"

Shiro, Coran and Allura grew silent, but Pidge was not going to let the silence linger.

"Just because you don't talk about it, it doesn't mean he won't remember." Pidge confidently stated.

Pidge wasn't trying to start a fight with Lance. She did understand albeit not completely, but she did know Lance well enough to know that he had his reasons. But she also knew that Keith still had questions, and that it would be unfair to leave them unanswered.

Hunk decided to back up Lance before any more confusion could conquer the group.

"What Lance is trying to say is that since it's a fifty/fifty chance of Keith remembering. He doesn't want to risk telling him anything that could trigger those memories to come back. Keith did almost die, why would you want him to remember that?"

If anyone understood anything about traumatising memories, it was Shiro. He understood better than any of the others would know. He couldn't remember a lot from his time with the galra, but sometimes it came back in flashes at random moments. Normally he would see something vaguely familiar and it would trigger a memory. The memories he experienced always shook him to his core. Shiro didn't want Keith having to going through that.

That's when Shiro finally understood that Lance wasn't being stubborn; he was trying to protect Keith. If Shiro were in the same situation where he remembered everything and Keith didn't he would be doing the same thing. But he also knew Keith, and Shiro knew that he would go looking for answers.

Shiro's loud exhale drew the attention of the others.

"We're not going to force you, Lance," Shiro looked at Lance with an empathetic gaze. "But it's also not fair to ignore Keith if he has questions. We all want to keep him safe, but they are his memories. If they come back, it can't be helped. All we can do is be there for him."

Lance understood what Shiro was saying, he really did. But he just couldn't do it.

 _I can barely look him in the eye, let alone tell him that it was my fault he got hurt in the first place. I've caused him enough damage. I will not be the cause of any more._

Lance felt a coward, but he really just could not bring himself to do it, at least, not in that moment.

"I'll think about it." Lance mumbled. That was all they were going to get out of him. The answer was vague, but it was enough to please the others.

With that, Lance began to leave the observation deck for his room. No one went after him this time. He was glad that no one did, he needed to be on his own for a while. Lance found himself passing by Keith's room. He lingered near the door before he decided not to check on Keith and continue his way to his room.

Keith didn't remember and it was for the best that he kept it that way. At least, that's what Lance kept telling himself.

* * *

The bed rest was driving Keith nuts. He wasn't the kind of person to be able just sit still and rest. He had slept for more than ten hours (well, they felt like hours), he was ready to get back out and walk around. However he was ordered by Coran and the princess to get some bed rest. Apparently tiredness and fatigue was another set of side-effects from being in the healing pod for so long. So he not only had memory loss, he was also confined to his bedroom. He was ready to rebel.

Pidge and Hunk came to visit him earlier that morning. The two were both in their paladin armour. Keith didn't fail to notice that Lance was nowhere to be seen, but that honestly didn't surprise him.

Hunk ended up asking the inevitable question.

"How are you?"

"Better than I was last night," Keith wasn't lying, he did feel better. If anything, he felt ready enough to go out and fight someone. "So where's my armour gone? Is it back in the uniform pod?"

Pidge nodded.

"Yeah, although Coran's been taking it out a lot. He's been mending and cleaning it."

Keith shifted his position in an attempt to get comfortable again. He found himself almost asking about Lance's whereabouts, but he already felt like he wouldn't get a straight answer, nor was he sure if he really wanted to ask. So instead he just asked something else that was on his mind.

"If you don't mind me asking, what have I missed from being in the pod?" Keith felt the need to clarify, "Are the zilatians doing okay?"

Pidge and Hunk lead the conversation into the process of rebuilding and how the zilatians were working together. The three talked for a good while before Keith began complaining that he wanted to walk around. In fact Keith was about to make an attempt to get out of bed with the other two watching idly by, but they was caught by Allura whom was bringing in some food goo.

Allura ended up informing Pidge and Hunk that it was time to go down to the village and that Shiro was waiting. The pair shot Keith some empathetic looks as Allura reminded Keith that he had to remain in bed. The two other paladins claimed that they would check to see how he was later before being ushered out by the princess.

Coran kept checking on Keith in his room like clockwork after that. It forced Keith to stay where he was. Keith would have done something, but he did still feel weak. He was in and out of sleep for the rest of the morning, but after waking up for the fourth time he couldn't sleep anymore.

He was staring at the walls of his room when Shiro along with Coran came to visit him during what Keith assumed to be midday on Zilate. Keith sat up in his bed and turned his head to the two.

"I need to get out of this bed. I need something else to do besides staring at these walls," Keith complained.

"That's why you're meant to be sleeping." Coran grinned knowing he was pushing Keith's buttons.

"I'm not tired. I can't sleep anymore," Keith tried not to sound like an angry toddler, but the statement itself still sounded childish. And it didn't help that the next thing he did was sit up in his bed and fold his arms across his chest.

"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked.

"I _feel_ like I'm ready to get out of this bed." Keith retorted.

Shiro let out a soft chuckle. Keith was only ever that snappy when he didn't get enough sleep or if he overslept. It was hard to tell which one it was, but either way it was better than having him in a healing pod induced coma. Shiro looked to Coran.

"What do you think, Coran? Should we let him out of his prison?" Shiro mused.

"Hmmm," Coran pondered and took a good look at Keith. "In a few hours we'll see, but you should be well enough to attend the farewell, but for now just try to get more rest."

Keith was just going to complain about resting once more, but he suddenly perked up. He had to check that he had heard right.

"Wait, we're leaving Zilate?"

Shiro nodded, "We've done what we can. We just finishing up today and we're leaving tonight. The zilatian elder that Lance befriended wants to send us off with a blessing during their sunset. We couldn't refuse them that."

"It is a great honour." Coran beamed.

"So I'm stuck here until then?" Keith groaned.

"You're still recovering, so the answer is yes," Coran replied. "I'll check up on you later."

As soon as Coran left Keith grumpily sunk his head down into his pillow.

"Can you at least get Coran to stop checking on me? I'm not a kid." Keith grumbled.

Shiro just softly chuckled and pet Keith's shoulder.

"So how are you really?" Shiro asked again.

"I am still a bit tired," Keith told the truth, "But I can't sleep anymore. I am better, Shiro. I'm ready to get out up and do something."

Shiro knew that Keith was getting antsy due to the fact that everyone else was doing something to help the zilatians whilst he just sat in bed.

"The more you rest now, the more strength you'll have later."

Keith made a grunting sound as a reply. He knew he had to listen to Shiro and Coran, but it didn't mean that he had to like it.

"Well, I should head back. I only wanted to see how you were doing. There are still a few things I need to do in the village before we head off." Shiro was almost out the door when Keith called out it him.

"Wait, Shiro, I need to ask you something,"

Shiro paused and turned around back to Keith with one hand still resting on the door frame. Keith seemed hesitant at first, but he knew that he couldn't take too much more time to ask.

"Keith?"

"Forget it. It's nothing," Keith looked down into his lap.

Shiro was silent. He knew what Keith was really trying to ask, which was something along the lines of 'did anyone else get hurt by the creature like me?'. Shiro knew that was just worried and he just didn't want to admit it.

"No one else got hurt. It was only you," Shiro stepped closer back to Keith's bed. "If I'm not mistaken, you didn't give the creature a chance to. When we were fighting the creature, you still managed to deal out some damage before it could hurt anyone,"

Keith sighed; of course Shiro would be able to see through his question.

"I want to say that I remember doing that, but I don't." Keith continued to stare down into his lap.

Shiro knew where Keith was going with the conversation, so he sat on Keith's bedside and he waited for Keith to look him in the eye.

"Listen to me. Don't hold it against yourself for not remembering. Take me for example, I still don't remember a lot from my time with the galra," Shiro explained. "If I learned anything from it, it's that no matter how hard I wanted to remember, I couldn't."

"Shiro-"

"I'm not done, so please just hear me out," Shiro didn't continue until Keith looked at him attentively. "Memories tend to come back in their own time. Sometimes memories come back and sometimes they don't. But not knowing can be a gift. So don't try to force them out, they'll come back to if they're meant to. And if they do come back, we're all here for you,"

Keith slowly nodded. If anyone knew about lost memories, it was Shiro. Keith trusted his word.

"Ok," Keith mumbled. "But what about Lance?"

Shiro cocked his head to the side.

"What about him?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would have given anything just to hear a lame joke from him last night," Keith admitted. "Don't get me wrong, the guy annoys me half to death, but even I could see that he wasn't being himself. I know that something is wrong. I don't know what I said or did or what happened in those tunnels, but it was enough to get him upset with me,"

Shiro took a moment to absorb what he just heard. All he could do was tell Keith how he honestly saw the situation.

"Lance isn't upset with you. He's upset at what happened to you,"

"Really? Then why won't he tell me anything? You know that Lance is avoiding me, right? Everyone has seen me today except him. I'm not stupid, Shiro, I know what that means,"

Shiro shook his head, "It's not what you think it is,"

"Isn't it?"

Shiro shook his head again, "No, it isn't. You're thinking that he's doing it out of spite, but he's not,"

"Then what is it?" Keith asked.

Shiro was about to answer before the communicator in his helmet sparked to life. Keith couldn't hear it clearly, but he had no doubt that it was Allura asking why Shiro was taking so long. Shiro looked hesitant to answer back, but he quickly answered.

"I'll be there in a few ticks." Shiro knew that if he said minutes or seconds that the princess just would have gotten confused.

"You have to go." Keith didn't ask, he was stating it as a fact.

"We'll finish this conversation," Shiro declared. "And like I said last night, give him some time and he'll come around, and when he does I think that the two of you need to talk."

Keith sighed and nodded. He trusted Shiro's word on it, but it didn't mean that Keith still didn't have his doubts on the matter.

"If he'll talk to me, or even better yet, if I want to talk to him." Keith grumbled.

"He will," Shiro assured. The optimism in his voice made it seem like he was absolutely sure that they would. Shiro just sounded a little too confident for Keith's comfort. "If not, when you see him next just give it a try."

Shiro immediately stood up from the bed.

"I've got to go, will you be okay?"

Keith forced a lopsided smile.

"Well, it's not like I'm going anywhere." Keith remarked. It earned a small smile on Shiro's face.

"Get some rest."

And then Shiro speedily left the room, leaving Keith alone with his thoughts. Keith sunk back down into his pillow and shut his eyes. He wasn't sleeping; he had too much to think about.

The night prior, Shiro had helped him fill the gaps of how he got hurt. His shoulder had been bleeding from being stabbed by the creature's stinger. The stinger had been laced with venom so it meant that he had been bleeding and poisoned. Keith didn't remember how it happened, but knowing what his injuries were was a start.

Whilst Keith was curious as to what happened when fighting the monster, he wanted to know more of what happened when it was just him and Lance. Despite the rivalry, he did care about Lance, not that he would say it to his face, but he did care. And Keith knew that something happened for Lance to be so distant. They weren't exactly close before, in fact they argued every day, but the version of Lance he saw the night he woke up, well, Keith had never seen that side to him before.

It's not that Keith remembered what happened, but when he really thought hard about it, he could feel the vague shadows of his memories buried deep in the recesses of his mind. It was almost torture to know that they were so close yet so far away.

It was like the feeling of forgetting a word, but having on the tip of his tongue. It was as if an itch would appear when he thought about it long enough, but whenever he would scratch he would feel a range of things, but the most common two being pain with the slightest inkling of dread. It was like Keith's mind had warning signs over a locked door and he kept jiggling at the handle.

It was only after what Shiro said that Keith took it as a sign not to push at it anymore. Like Shiro had once said, if his memories were meant to comeback, they would. He couldn't force it.

Keith was drawn out of his thoughts at the sound of his bedroom door opening. Keith without a single doubt knew that it was Coran coming to check if he was still in bed. Internally groaning, Keith made sure to keep his eyes shut to make it look like he was sleeping.

After a short moment, Keith heard the door shut again. Keith snuck open one eye to see if Coran was gone. When he saw the room was empty he immediately shot up.

Keith had enough of sitting around. He was going to get up do something.

His legs felt heavier than normal, but he still managed to conjure the strength to stand. It lasted less than a second before Keith almost collapsed. Keith leant on the wall and he took a few deep breaths. He stayed like that until he felt confident enough to try and walk. By some miracle he was doing it. Keith took it one small step at a time around his room before he began picking up the pace.

It felt good to stretch his legs. Keith made his way to his wardrobe and got changed back into his casual clothing. He had enough of wearing the infirmary garbs. Keith struggled for a while, but he eventually got it off. After he was comfortably clothed he poked his head from his door to check if Coran was still in the halls. He was not.

Keith knew he had to figure out where he was going before he just walked around the castle. That's when he remembered that his armour was back in the uniform pod so he made the last minute decision to make that his destination.

Keith quietly poked his head out before he walked out of his room and made his way to the training deck. He knew he only had a short span of freedom before Coran would notice he was gone or find him.

He made his way there with little to no issues. Coran was nowhere in sight. That itself should have been a red flag that something was wrong, but Keith didn't see the signs.

Keith gazed upon his armour. The armour looked like it was as new as the day he first laid eyes on it. Keith was about to grab his armour when the voice of specific orange haired altean's startled him.

"It took a while, but its back in working order. You'll have to thank, Hunk for fixing the communicator in your helmet though."

Coran had been tailing Keith for a while but he only decided that then he would make his presence known.

Keirh knew was caught. He also knew that it was obvious what he was doing and he found that there was no point in lying. So he instead just stood there and stared at Coran in silence.

Coran just let out a large sigh.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get your armour on and we can head down to the village,"

Keith blinked at him for a good few seconds.

"What? Aren't you going to chain me to my bed or something to stop me from leaving?"

"No, you're as stubborn as a gwilef. They're don't like listening to anyone, much like yourself," Coran stated, "Beside, I know you're not going to rest any more and while you're up and around we might as well make ourselves useful. Just stay where I can keep an eye on you."

Despite the…well, what Keith assumed was an insult, he suddenly had a new appreciation for Coran.

* * *

Stepping out of the castle, Keith realised that the castle was placed in the centre of the trees. The fallen trees remained sticking out from under the castle. It was obvious that Coran and Allura would have been in a rush to land, otherwise they would have landed elsewhere with more land rather than having the Castle of Lions crushing the zilatian trees.

Keith's gaze wandered over to see a cave in the distance. A sense of familiarity hit him. He instantly just knew it was the entrance for tunnels where the creature had taken him and Lance. As he stared at it, he felt a sense of dread. It was as if he dared to step in there, he would not be the same. That he would be taken by a wave of memories.

Keith was not the kind of person to admit to fear, but that was the only emotion he could feel welling in his chest. For a moment he thought he heard Lance shouting his name and the sound of rocks tumbling.

But the voice filtered out, sounding like someone calling out his name like he was underwater. Keith snapped out of it and he realised it was Coran.

"Keith, the village is this way. Keith?"

"Yeah, I'm listening." Keith forcibly ripped his gaze away from the cave making the decision that it was better if he didn't go back into those tunnels.

Coran made small talk on their way to the village. To put it lightly, it was awkward for the both of them. It's not that they didn't get along; it was just that the two were never really left alone together so it was all new. Keith didn't have much input in the odd Altean trivia that Coran was speaking about. Keith would just throw in an occasional nod of the head, but honestly he was secretly hoping that they would get to the village soon. It was in those moments that he couldn't help but want Lance's ability to be able to talk to anyone without it getting uncomfortable.

After walking for a while and a lot of awkward chatting, they finally made it to the village. Coran tried to keep an eye on Keith as long he could, but with some zilatians asking him questions he quickly lost track of him. It also didn't help that Keith didn't seem to care and he went off by himself to take a look around the village.

It was definitely livelier than Keith remembered. The last he saw it the place was completely deserted. Keith had to stop in his tracks as a few zilatian children ran past him, playing a game of some sort.

Keith did not fail to notice that one of the children was holding a doll. Keith may have had gaps in his memory, but he remembered finding the same doll in an empty home. It warmed his heart to know that the child was safe and that they had found their doll.

As he watched where the children were running off to, his eyes remained glued to a specific area. It was nothing special about it, but a sudden thought rose in his mind. The thought was the image of yellow blood. Keith knew it was too random to be just an odd thought. It was a piece from the jigsaw that was his memory.

Suddenly it felt like his left shoulder was punctured and set on fire. Keith hissed at the sudden pain and he clasped his hand over his shoulder. There was no reason for his shoulder to be hurting, but it stopped soon after it began. The phantom pain was strange, but Keith didn't feel too confused about. If anything, it felt too familiar for comfort.

Keith was snapped out of his mild state of recollection, hearing the sounds of someone dropping something. He turned around to see a zilatian trying to pick up many scrolled up pieces of parchment that were scattered across the ground.

"Did you need some help?" Keith ended up contradicting his question after he didn't wait for an answer and helped to gather up the parchments. Keith passed them to the zilatian.

"Thank you," The zilatian did a double take upon seeing Keith's face and his demeanour changed from gratitude to a surprised yet content expression. "The paladin of red, Keith, you have recovered!"

Keith blinked at him.

"Sorry, but who are you?"

Xi'lek was unfazed by Keith's question.

"I am not surprised if you don't recognise me. The light of the tunnels do not compare to daylight," Xi'lek reassured. "We met in the tunnels. I am Xi'lek."

The sound of the zilatians name had awoken something in Keith. He felt like something had ripped the air from his lungs as he suddenly recalled something. It was in fragments. He remembered images of blue crystals glowing and webs everywhere. Something he remembered hearing was Lance's voice telling him the name of the zilatian he was talking to.

"You were webbed up to the wall across from Lance," Keith was surprised with himself at what he just said.

Xi'lek was obviously pleased at Keith seemingly remembering him, not even realising what that meant to Keith.

"Yes," Xi'lek nodded. "I have to say that after I saw the Baluke take you into her den, I thought you would be eaten, but then Lance returned with the other paladins and they went to slay the Baluke and save you."

Keith remained silent listening to every word Xi'lek was saying as Xi'lek continued.

"When I saw the paladin of black run out with you in his arms, I thought you were going to die,"

Listening to Xi'lek's words set something off with Keith. More fragments came back to him. They all didn't make sense. He recalled yellow and red eyes staring down at him, yellow blood and an inhuman screeching sound. It was particularly frightening, but Keith did feel his hair begin to stand.

Xi'lek suddenly remembered what he was holding.

"That's right. They still need these parchments. It was good speaking to you, Keith, the paladin of red. But I apologize. I must take my leave."

Xi'lek began to rush off with the parchments. Keith remained standing there, trapped in thought as his mind vigorously tried to decode the random fragments he remembered. What frustrated him the most is that they weren't full memories, they just unclear portions of a few of them.

"Keith? What are you doing out here?"

He was drawn out of whatever trance-like state he just momentarily fell into. He turned around instantly to see that it was Pidge.

"You didn't sneak out, did you?"

Keith shook his head.

"No, Coran let me out. He's around here," Keith looked around, not spotting Coran anywhere, "Somewhere."

"Cool," She sounded optimistic before she got a good look at his face. "Are you sure you should be out and about? You're looking pretty tired."

"I'm fine," Keith assured. "Where's everyone else?"

"Hunk's with Lance in the next village over while Shiro and Allura are in the tunnels sorting some stuff out with the locals."

Keith was partly glad that Shiro and Allura were elsewhere. He knew that they would have just nagged at him to rest.

"How about you help me for a bit?" Pidge grabbed him by the arm. "Come on."

Pidge didn't leave Keith much choice and he just ended up following Pidge. Needless to say, he was stuck doing the physical work and he ended up carrying some boxes of rations around for Pidge. They delivered a box to each house that held a zilatian family.

Seeing a family together after the whole torment they had been through and being genuinely happy put a smile on Keith's face. He didn't remember what it was like to have a family. His mother died when he was young and his father was never in the picture. But it was simple moments like those when for a moment he felt like he could imagine it.

Being a paladin of Voltron had become so important to him because of this. Mostly everyone in the universe had a family. Keith didn't, but it did not mean he wouldn't do anything in his power to protect the moments between families like he saw.

He had nothing waiting for him back on Earth, but he did have this resolve and to him it was absolute.

* * *

By the time Pidge and Keith finally ended up finishing up, the suns were beginning to set and Shiro and Allura had gotten back to the village. Time seemed to pass so quickly. Keith had to assure the two that Coran had let him out. Shiro and Allura accepted the answer as valid once they saw Coran approaching them from a distance.

The five of them lead the way back to the castle with Xi'lek and many of the zilatians coming to watch the farewell. Back at the castle, Hunk and Lance were waiting for them.

Keith and Lance shared a brief moment of eye contact before Lance broke it off by looking away. Keith just rolled his eyes as a response. He didn't know what Lance's problem was, but he also knew that starting a conversation over it now only screamed of disaster. So Keith decided to let it go for that moment.

As soon as everyone was gathered near the castle, Xi'lek got the members of team Voltron to stand next to each other in a line. It was purely unintentional, but he forced Lance and Keith to stand by one another. Both of them avoided eye contact and ignored the other.

Xi'lek had two perfectly rounded stones and he continuously hit them together as he began chanting in zilatian. It went on for a while as he chanted, but it seemed like he was in mid-sentence when he stopped.

The local spectators began to applaud them.

"And this is where we say our goodbyes." Xi'lek placed the stones down back on to the ground.

Allura stepped forward.

"This is for you and your people. If you ever find yourself in danger, know that Voltron will come running." Allura passed the beacon into Xi'lek's hands.

Xi'lek stared down at the device, looking back up to Allura as he smiled.

"We can't thank you for all you've done," Xi'lek bowed his head in respect. "Thank you all."

"We just wish that we could have done more." The princess frowned.

"The zilatian race lives on. We will forever mourn the ones we lost, but now all we can do is live. And life is the greatest gift of them all," Xi'lek looked over to Lance and Keith. "May I have a word to the paladins of red and blue before you leave?"

"Of course." Allura nodded. She silently signalled the others to leave them be, giving them so privacy.

Xi'lek smiled at the two paladins.

"The two of you are great warriors. And you both kept your word that you would come back to save us. Thank you," Xi'lek turned to Keith, "And you, Keith, you suffered the most in this rescue, even sacrificing yourself in order to save your teammate so that my people could be saved."

Lance didn't want Xi'lek to push more on the subject for Keith's sake.

"Xi'lek," Lance began. "Keith doesn't-"

"I wanted to keep my word. We did promise that we'd save you and your people, didn't we? My sacrifice wasn't in vain. We saved you and your people and that's what counts." Keith said it so confidently that it left Lance speechless.

Lance couldn't help but stare at Keith incredulously. Did he really have no regard for his life? But more importantly, did he remember all of a sudden?

"And so you did," Xi'lek nodded, taking a hold of one of Lance's and Keith's hands in each of his. "I will never forget this and neither will my people. You are heroes. Please always remember that."

The two paladins slowly nodded and Xi'lek let them go.

"Now go and may the stars protect you."

The two paladins turned away, going back into the castle. Once the hanger doors shut and the ship was lifting off that Lance glanced over at Keith. But before Lance could open his mouth to say anything, Keith bet him to it.

"I actually remember that promise. When he asked if we could save them, I nodded yes. He warned us that the tunnels were like a maze," Keith sounded more like he was thinking aloud rather than informing Lance of the memory. "He was talking about it and it just popped in my head. But that's a good thing, right?"

It was in that moment that Lance knew that if he were to talk about the events like Xi'lek then Keith would probably remember more. Lance did not want that. Keith had saved him, and if he could repay him of that debt, even just a little, then giving him the gift of not reminding him of all the pain he had gone through would be the least he could do.

Without a word, Lance shrugged at Keith's question and walked away. Keith angrily frowned and looked away from Lance and he crossed his arms.

"So nothing really has changed," Keith muttered to himself. "Why does he hate me so much?"

Deep down Keith knew that Lance didn't hate him, but he couldn't explain how he knew. The chain of memories was still inside him waiting to rise from their sleep, but Keith didn't know that, not yet.

Keith let out a puff of air, blowing his fringe away from his face. He felt like he had done nothing for most of the day, but he was still so exhausted. Keith had to remind himself that it was a side-effect from being in the healing pod for so long and not because he was weak. He was going to bed because he knew that as soon as his head hit the pillow that he would be out like a light.

Meanwhile as Lance walked down the halls of the castle he found himself in his lion's bay. It was no coincidence that he found himself there. Lance heard the familiar call of his lion within his mind. Through their bond, the blue lion spoke to him. While it wasn't exactly in words that the blue lion was speaking, Lance just knew that she was glad that he had finally gone to see her. Lance found himself smiling, resting a hand against the blue lion's paw.

"It's good to see you too, Blue."

A sad smile appeared on Lance's face as he felt the blue lion speak to him again. She wanted to know if he was alright. Even his lion knew that her paladin was upset.

"I'll be okay," He reassured his lion. "It might take a while, but I'll be okay."

And that was the first time he was truthful to himself in a long time.

* * *

It was at the dining hall during the following morning that it felt like the events at Zilate were just some surreal dream. But of course, it wasn't. Everyone had already gathered in the dining hall, but Lance was still nowhere to be seen.

Keith may have been the second to be in the dining hall aside from Hunk, but he didn't take a single bite out of his food. Keith had his elbow propped up on the table, holding his head with a disinterested expression as he continuously poked around at his food goo with his Altean eating utensil. He didn't have much of an appetite.

Keith didn't tell anyone but when he woke up that morning, he began remembering more details about being chased in the passages by the creature. He would have told someone, but there wasn't much to tell. The memory itself was like a blur. He remembered trying to run, being in a lot of pain and then just darkness. It was more confusing than anything.

When Shiro finally noticed what Keith was doing with his food goo, he frowned and sighed.

"Keith, please stop playing with your food."

As a silent reply, Keith just placed down the utensil and stared at the goo instead in defiance.

Shiro frowned again, but before he could tell Keith to eat the goo, Lance finally arrived into the dining hall. He looked like death itself. Lance had large bags under his eyes, it looked like he didn't get any sleep at all and on top of that he just had this aura that felt like death. Normally he would look as fresh as a daisy, but by the looks of it, the daisy had withered and died.

"Good morning." Hunk greeted.

Lance yawned and made some sort of sound that sounded like some sort of reply. Lance shuffled over and sat next to Hunk.

"Morning." Lance yawned.

Once Lance was at the table for a good while, Allura decided to make her announcement.

"I think that today you should all go up against the gladiator."

Keith and Shiro immediately perked, but all for different reasons.

"Are you sure?" Shiro asked. "So soon?"

"I'm ready!" Keith exclaimed. He wanted nothing more to get start training again. He had felt ready for a while. He was sick of being babied.

"Then it's settled. Training will begin in an Earth hour." Allura announced.

Keith immediately leapt up and left to grab his gear. He looked a little too excited to get ready for training. Pidge even let out a small huff of laughter seeing how fast Keith was out the door.

Coran was taking the empty bowls of food goo when Shiro stood from his chair. Shiro was exactly angry, but he had a very stern expression that sent a few chills through the paladin's spines.

"Princess, may I speak to you in private?"

By Allura's expression, she had expected Shiro wanting to speak to her so the two left the dining hall. The four remaining paladins stared at Shiro and Allura with confused expressions.

"Well you heard the princess. You all should start getting ready." Coran commanded, taking the stacks of dirty dishes with him, but not before he disapprovingly looked down at Keith's still full bowl.

Hunk got up from his seat and gave a stretch, cracking his back in the process.

"Well, I'm going to experiment with the new herbs and plants I found on Zilate before training. Anyone wanna come and join me?"

Pidge gave a small shrug.

"Sure," She adjusted her glasses, "It's not like I have anything else to do."

"Lance, you in?" Hunk asked. "Lance?"

"I'll catch up with you later. I just got to do a few things first." Lance replied.

"You know where to find us." Hunk said as he and Pidge left.

And just like that Lance was left alone in the dining hall.

 _Perfect._

Lance had decided that Shiro and Allura's sudden leave was a little too suspicious for his liking. With the mystery surrounding it, he couldn't help but want to investigate. Lance was going to do some snooping.

He stalked down the halls until he pinpointed the sound of their voices coming from the control deck. As he got closer he realised that Shiro and Allura were arguing about something. It's not that Lance would purposely try to eavesdrop on a private conversation, but he couldn't help but be curious as to what they were discussing so heatedly.

"I don't see what the problem is," Allura's eyebrows furrowed into a frown. "Keith even said it himself that he's ready."

Lance remained hidden near the archway near the door. The conversation definitely sparked his interest now.

"Keith isn't the kind of person that likes to been seen as vulnerable. He's only saying that he's ready because wants to prove himself," Shiro explained whilst he crossed his arms. "I think he should take a break from training for at least a few more days."

"Normally I would agree with you, Shiro, but physically he has recovered," Allura argued. "And Zarkon isn't one to take breaks."

"I know that, but what if he's not ready?" Shiro began to pace back and forth while Allura remained stationary.

"You're letting your emotional attachment cloud your judgement," Allura stated.

Shiro frowned. "Are you not worried?"

"I never said that I wasn't," Allura defended. "But Keith survived. It's over now."

"Well he almost didn't make it," Shiro sighed.

"You shouldn't let this haunt you, Shiro." Allura placed a hand on his shoulder and he stopped pacing. "We brought him back and that's what counts."

Shiro let out a deep breath, "It doesn't change what happened to him."

Lance could no longer remain hidden. It all wasn't making much sense to him.

"What are you talking about?" Lance stepped out from his hiding place, revealing his presence.

Allura and Shiro were both alarmed at Lance's sudden appearance.

"What do you know that I don't?" Lance inquired.

Shiro and Allura looked to one another and silent agreed to tell him. There was no point in hiding it when Lance had obviously been listening in on their conversation for quite some time.

"Well?" Lance stared at the two of them, trying to coax out an answer.

"Lance, before we explain you need to understand that this was no one's fault," Shiro hesitated for a moment before continuing, "When I was almost out of the tunnels with Keith, he stopped breathing. I got him out to Allura and Coran, but his heart had stopped."

The information that Shiro just confessed was not a small secret like he 'ate the last cookie'—no, not at all. This was a bombshell. Lance was no fool. He knew that if someone's heart stopped beating it meant they were dead. What Allura had been saying about bringing Keith back suddenly made more sense.

"He died and you didn't tell any of us!" Lance suddenly yelled.

"I understand that this is a lot to take in, but please listen to us," Allura stepped in. "We managed to restart his heart. And as you have already seen, he is alive and well. We didn't want anyone to worry."

Lance was angry at first, but the expression melted away to horror as he made his own deductions.

"It's my fault." He whispered. Neither Allura nor Shiro could hear what Lance had said, but they made their own conclusions.

"Lance please-" Shiro never got to finish.

"No. I get it. See you at training." Lance snapped and walked out.

Allura and Shiro looked to one another. They both silently agreed that they had just created a mess they couldn't clean up.

* * *

Shiro tried to look for Lance, but he remained hidden away from every one. Allura suggested that they continue with the training to see how it turns out. Shiro was reluctant at first, but agreed.

Soon all the paladins were all suited up and they made their way to the training deck. Keith was the first one there and waiting. Allura and Coran stayed up in the spectator's area, waiting to see if the paladins were ready.

"Before we start, is everyone sure that they're ready to do this?" Shiro asked.

"Let's just get this over and done with." Lance replied bitterly as his bayard shifted into its blaster form.

Shiro made a mental note of talking to him after the training was finished. Shiro looked up to Allura and Coran in the spectator pit and nodded. Allura accepted the signal and activated the gladiator.

To begin with, everything was going well. They had done the drill many times before and it became second nature to them. They fought together and as a team.

But then it all fell a part in a single instant when the gladiator began charging at the closest target to it, Keith.

Keith felt more than ready to take the gladiator head on, but suddenly it was like he couldn't move. What he saw was no longer the gladiator, it was a monster, but not any random monster, it had been the creature, the Baluke.

It wasn't that he was exactly scared, but alarmed him enough for him to lose his focus.

"Keith, look out!" Pidge shouted.

But the warning came too late. Keith took a direct hit. Once the gladiator's staff slammed into Keith, it sent him flying half way across the training deck floor. Keith was skidding and tumbling against the ground. When he finally stopped tumbling, he briefly blacked out, lying on the ground in pain.

Lance took one look and everything rushed back. All he could think about is what Shiro said. And all he could suddenly envision was Keith dying, about to be eaten by the Baluke. Lance became overwhelmed with a white-hot rage. And it was like his mind shut down and went on auto-pilot.

He could feel himself squeezing the trigger of his blaster repeatedly and dodging the gladiator's advances at the attempt of attacking him, but all caution had been cast out of him. He had one goal and that was to destroy the gladiator. Lance heard people yelling, but he ignored it. Lance only came back to his senses when two firm hands had grabbed on to him.

"Lance, it's over!" It was Shiro. "You can stop!"

He shot his head toward Shiro, panting as his arms trembled from adrenaline. Lance felt how his hands were still stiffly holding his blaster. He looked down at what he had been aiming at and he gasped. The gladiator below him had not just been destroyed, it had been obliterated it into many little pieces. By the looks of it, once he started shooting at it, he never stopped until Shiro intervened.

Lance began to lower his blaster. Shiro slowly let go, but he his hands hovered nearby, prepared if he had to stop Lance once again. Lance turned his head to look behind them. Hunk and Pidge were by Keith's side with Hunk helping Keith to sit up.

Pidge and Hunk both stared at Lance with the smallest inkling of fear, but most of all, concern. Lance looked away and up to Allura and Coran up in the spectator deck. They had the same expression as Pidge and Hunk. Lance looked back down once again and Keith's eyes met his. Keith's expression carried more shock than anything else. Keith was alive and he had to keep reminding himself that.

 _What did I just do?_

Lance marched straight out of the room. Shiro raised his arm about to stop him, but he suddenly heard the conversation behind him.

"Are you okay?" Hunk had asked.

There was no reply. Keith continued to stare blankly forward.

"Keith?" Pidge waved a hand in front of his face. He blinked once, but that wasn't much of a response. Before anyone could attempt to gain back Keith's attention, his head lulled against Hunk.

Shiro was over in an instant.

"Keith, hey!" Shiro checked his pulse. There was still a heartbeat.

Allura and Coran were down in a matter of moments.

"Move!" Coran ordered.

They instantly moved out of the way to let Coran check on him. Pidge absent-mindedly grabbed on to Shiro's robotic arm and squeezed it during the agonizing silence as Coran checked over Keith.

"There's nothing to worry about here," Coran reassured. "It's just a case of a mild fainting spell."

The tension that had been built in the room was suddenly released.

"Hunk, do you mind helping me to carry Keith back to his room?" Coran asked. "It's better to place him somewhere more comfortable."

"Sure." Hunk nodded. The two ended up carrying Keith out of the room, but not before Hunk looked back at Pidge with worried eyes. Once they were gone, Pidge finally spoke up.

"I'm going to find Lance."

Pidge jogged out of the room. A part of her was glad that she didn't have to remain in the room with tension growing between Shiro and Allura.

Allura sighed in shame.

"I should have listened to you. We should not have held this training today."

Shiro shook his head.

"You couldn't have known."

Shiro stared off at the door wondering how he could help Keith and Lance.

* * *

"Lance?"

He didn't respond to her. Lance instead kept his arms wrapped around his legs and he continued to stare out toward the stars.

Pidge didn't want to make the mistake of asking if he was okay when she knew he wasn't. Instead she sat down beside him and stared out into the stars.

"They sure are beautiful." Pidge commented, trying to get Lance to talk. Normally he would make some lame remark like 'yeah, but not as beautiful as me' or something like that. But all she got was more silence.

"After you left Keith passed out," Pidge tried to cajole a response out of him. His eyes widened slightly, but that's all she got so she continued, "He's okay. But I am more worried about what happened to you."

Lance finally responded and he shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it. Pidge understood and stopped pushing at the subject.

Pidge didn't know what she could say to comfort him, so she decided to let her actions speak for her. She slowly leant her head against him in silence. It was something she would casually do with her brother, Matt, whenever he was upset or when she was just tired.

Lance couldn't help it, but his eyes began to water. It took everything within to hold his tears back. He refused to cry, not in front of Pidge at least. Lance stiffly wrapped one arm around Pidge, pulling her closer to him in a one-armed hug. It was something he did to his younger sisters often and Pidge was practically like a sister anyway so it felt no different.

"Thanks Pidge." Lance mumbled. Pidge heard the slight crack in his voice.

Holding back his tears once more, Lance faintly tightened his hold around Pidge. He was glad she was there and not pestering him for answers. After that, Pidge continued to sit by him and the two remained in a comforting silence.

* * *

It had to have been only an hour later that Keith finally woke up. As soon as he woke up he realised that he must have passed out after the failed training. A part of him wished that he could forget that training session. But if there was anything good that came from it, he found himself remembering a few more shards of memories that involved the creature. They didn't make much sense, but that was due to the fact that he wasn't remembering in chronological order. If anything, his memories burdened him with more questions and confusion from before.

Sitting up, Keith noticed that no one was in the room. He had to admit that he was a little surprised at that fact. The more Keith moved around, the more he could feel bruises forming all over his body, but it was nothing serious. If it hadn't been for his armour it would have been more serious. At least he came to that conclusion by the fact he wasn't in the healing pod once again.

Keith glanced down at his clothes. He was changed back into his civilian clothes and his armour was sitting in the corner of his room.

He didn't quite understand what had happened to him during the training. If anything he was embarrassed with himself. He wanted to prove himself and he ended up freezing up and fainting. He never felt more pathetic. He remembered how the gladiator suddenly looked like the creature. It wasn't that he could remember, but he felt something inside him like fear, but it's not like he would ever admit to that.

His thoughts went back to Lance during their training. He had never seen Lance fight so ferociously. It was almost frightening. It was like looking at an entire different person. It was clear to Keith that while Lance was avoiding him, he was hiding how he felt and it was coming out in his viciousness. Keith wanted to know what it was because he knew it involved him.

"Keith! You're awake!"

Looking up he snapped away from his thoughts. Keith realised that it was Pidge and she had also changed back into her civilian clothes.

"I was just coming to check on you. Are you feeling okay? Do you remember what happened?" Pidge asked.

Keith flung his legs over the side of his bed. He decided that he had no time for Pidge's questions.

"Where's Lance?"

Pidge was surprised at the sudden question and then she looked hesitant.

"I was with on the observation deck with him not too long ago, but-"

Before Pidge had a chance to finish, Keith was out the door and gone. Pidge was about to try and stop Keith, but then she decided that maybe it was best for them two to talk.

Lance had insisted he would be okay and he had urged Pidge to go. She didn't object and left with a small nod. She knew that Keith wasn't the only one left with the trauma of what happened, Lance was as well and he remembered everything. She couldn't get Lance to open up, but something told her that Keith would.

Lance was just strolling around the hall near the observation deck when he suddenly found himself pinned to the wall. Not only did Keith manage to sneak up on him, but he also caught him off guard. He was surprised that he was awake, but he hid it well.

"Well hello to you too, Keith." Lance mockingly greeted.

Keith's blood was boiling. He did not want to deal with Lance's sarcasm. He let Lance go, but they still remained almost uncomfortably close.

"I want answers." Keith got straight into it.

"What makes you think I have them?" Lance remarked with an obvious use of sarcasm.

"What happened at training?" Keith ignored the sarcasm and he delved straight into what he wanted.

Lance sighed and he tried to lie, "I don't know."

Keith could see right through it.

"I'm not playing this game with you. Whatever it is, you need to either tell me or get over it!" Keith snapped. "You're being-"

"Pathetic? Is that were you going to say?" Lance interrupted, stepping away from him. Keith would have been confused at Lance's sudden word guess, but he was too blinded by his anger.

"I was going to say something completely different all together, but that word seems pretty suited to you right now." Keith spat. It wasn't what he wanted to say that, but his growing fury blinded him.

"Yeah, that's me, Lance, the paladin that can't do anything right!" Lance shouted.

Keith felt a small portion of his anger dissipate at the sudden proclamation. Keith knew that it was slightly out of place. It was an odd thing to say during the argument, even for Lance.

"What is going on with you!?" Keith began to raise his voice once more. "You have been avoiding me ever since I got out of the pod! You won't even look me in the eye!"

Lance forced himself to look Keith in the eyes to despite one of Keith's previous comments. However, he couldn't hold it for long.

"At first I thought you were mad at me, but after what happened at training that doesn't make sense!" Keith remained angered, but his voice softened slightly. "What aren't you telling me? What happened in the tunnels to make you like this? Was it something I said? Was it something I did? Or are just acting like this because you can?" Keith didn't sound angry when he asked this. It was a genuine question and Lance found himself unable to answer.

"We are not talking about this right now!" Lance attempted to turn and leave, but Keith grabbed his forearm and he did not let go.

"Yes, we are!" Keith yelled. "Just tell me why!"

Lance used all his force to tug his arm out of Keith's grip.

"Why do you keep pushing it!?" Lance screamed. "Would it really just be so hard just to forget about it!?"

"I want to know!" Keith snapped back. "Why don't you just tell me!?"

"Well maybe I'm just a coward." Lance forced a cynical smirk and Keith saw right through it.

"You're not a coward," Keith argued, "I don't need you to try and keep this from me! If you're not angry, that leaves only one other thing. And I don't need you to protect me! I can take care of myself!"

Keith turned around and stormed off. He had enough of it. He knew he wasn't going to get answers and he decided to leave before he could punch Lance in the face. Lance refused to let Keith have the last word so he yelled after him before he had a chance to leave.

"I think that's pretty rich coming from you!"

Keith grunted aloud in response as he continued to storm out. Keith desperately needed to punch something. Keith headed for his room, grabbing his bayard before heading toward the training deck.

He did not care about what happened last time he tried to train. He needed to do this for himself. He needed to prove to himself that he was fine and he could deal with it. After he closed the door's Keith heatedly pulled his jacket off.

"Start level three!" Keith barked, tossing his jacket into the corner of the room and activating his bayard.

Keith was fuelled by pure rage. He went full-force toward the gladiator with no hesitation or concern if he got hurt. Every time his sword collided with the gladiator's weapon, all he could was envision Lance's face on the gladiator. It just added more gasoline to the flames of his anger.

 _Stupid Lance. We wouldn't be having this issue if he just talked to me. Ugh! I have had enough of this!_ In the midst of his thoughts his form was getting sloppier.

The gladiator finally caught Keith off guard and it slammed into him. Keith was knocked to the ground and rolled a few feet away. Before Keith had a chance to react to the pain of the hit, the gladiator continued to come toward him.

Jumping to his feet, he had no choice but to clear his mind in order to be able to fight. Once all his attention was on fighting, everything else melted away and his focus was all on the gladiator.

Keith was doing perfectly fine, but just when he thought he could do it probably without being blinded by his anger it all went downhill.

The gladiator ran full force toward him and Keith's mind decided right then and there to play the same trick once again of seeing the creature. His body froze without his consent, but he was lucky that he still could speak.

"End training sequence!"

The gladiator immediately shut off. Once the system took the gladiator away from the training deck, Keith slowly regained feeling back in his body. Keith let out a scream of frustration, throwing his bayard half way across the room.

Fear wasn't a foreign concept to him, but he hated it. Feeling fear made him feel weak and out of control. He didn't want to feel so scared of something he didn't remember, but it was something out of his hands and he hated it.

A part of him knew that Lance was only trying to shield him from this fear and confusion, but it didn't make him any less upset with himself.

Keith dropped to the ground on to his knees, burying his face in his hands in pure frustration and dismay.

* * *

Pidge had informed him, along with the others that Keith was awake but no one knew where he went. But Shiro did know was that Lance was back in his room getting changed out of his armour. He decided to see Lance first.

Shiro knocked on Lance's bedroom door.

"Lance? I know you're in there. Can I come in?"

It was a moment before Lance opened the door from the inside, letting Shiro in. Lance finished properly pulling down his shirt, getting back into his casual clothing. Shiro leant against the wall as Lance sat on his bed.

"We need to talk about what happened at training."

Lance almost scoffed. Shiro was directly to the point, just like Keith.

"What about it?" Lance wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but it still sounded like it.

"You know what," Shiro made his way next to Lance. "When you saw Keith get hurt, everything just came rushing back, am I right?"

Lance blinked up at him. Shiro took this opportunity to seat himself next to Lance.

"I get that sometimes too when I see something to do with the Galra. I get flashbacks. Not pleasant ones, I might add," Shiro explained. "And after what I told you this morning it didn't help, did it?"

"Keith died because of me," Lance had to swallow the lump in his throat. "How am I supposed to live with that?" Lance's question sounded more like a plea for help than anything else.

"For starters, dwelling on it is not going to help. Keith's alive, that's the reality of the here and now. And you have to know and accept that it's not your fault," Shiro replied. "We didn't tell you because we knew that it would have been more trouble than it was worth. But Allura and I are sorry for keeping this from you." Shiro's apology was sincere.

Lance turned his head toward Shiro with an unsure expression. His silence made a clear message.

"It was the creature that did this, not you. Please believe that because that's what it is the truth." Shiro said.

Lance wanted to believe, but he just couldn't. It didn't change what happened. Keith still sacrificed himself and it got him killed as a result. They might have been able to revive him, but Keith still died. And that fact troubled him.

"If anything has come out of this, it's that keeping things from each other on this team will only tear us a part. You should talk to Keith." Shiro was suggesting or asking. It was a gentle demand.

Lance was silent for a good moment before he replied.

"Next I see him, I'll try," Lance said truthfully. "But I did just talk to him and it didn't go so well."

Shiro placed his human hand on Lance's shoulder.

"Alright. Well, I'm going to have a talk with him now about it all," Shiro stood up. "And for what it is worth, I'm proud of you."

Lance couldn't help but crack a smile from hearing that.

"Thanks Shiro."

Shiro smiled back and left the room looking for Keith. He had one talk down and one to go. He had been walking down the hall when he paused at the training deck door. It may have been only the faintest sound, but he heard someone in there.

When Shiro walked in he was not surprised in the slightest that Keith was already trying to train. He didn't activate any training simulations, but he was just practicing his form with his sword.

Keith glanced at Shiro for a moment, but seeing him did not faze him and he continued to practice his form.

"You know, you should probably be resting," Shiro said. Keith ignored him and continued with his slashes in the air. "Keith, you need to know that being not ready doesn't make you weak."

That's what got Keith to stop and finally look over at Shiro.

"I don't want to talk about it." Keith stated with an angry undertone. It was obvious that Keith was not happy.

"You're going to have to," Shiro knew that he had to be sterner with Keith than Lance. "Look, I know what you're going through is tough. You don't remember a lot and your memories tend to show themselves at the worst times, am I right?"

Keith stared at him with a frown. He lowered his sword and let it materialize back into the bayards original dormant state.

"I'm not afraid."

"But it makes you feel scared?" Shiro asked.

"No, I wasn't scared of the creature. I may not be able to remember a lot, but I do remember that. I wasn't scared," Keith explained. "So tell me why I froze out there."

"Because when you remember something all of a sudden it can be confusing and startling," Shiro frowned, he knew what was really bothering Keith. "We know you're not weak, Keith."

Keith tried to conceal his flinch, but Shiro still picked up on it. Keith sighed in defeat.

"I tried to go up against the gladiator by myself again not too long ago, but I couldn't face it. I saw the same thing." Keith confessed.

Whilst Shiro felt a bubble of concern that Keith did that without telling anyone, he let it go just that one time.

"Remember when we first versed the gladiator? I froze and you saved me," Shiro tried to bring his point across. "Did you think that I was weak because I froze?"

Keith immediately shook his head.

"Shiro, no. We went through two very different things."

"I don't think so," Shiro interjected. "I know that the circumstances were different, but the same kind of ordeal stays with you."

"But I just got hurt and poisoned by the venom. How does that compare to being captured and tortured by the Galra for a year?" Keith didn't mean to sound so snappy, but he did.

Shiro's face fell and he looked visibly upset. Keith took one look at Shiro's face and he knew that something was wrong.

"I know you're hiding something," Keith's voice lowed and he looked disappointed. "Just tell me, please. Lance is still hiding things from me and I don't need that from you of all people."

Shiro knew that the opportunity to tell Keith was right in front of him. He had to tell him because Keith deserved to know.

"Keith, back in the tunnels, the truth is that we really did lose you." Shiro confessed.

"What?" Keith's anger melted away into confusion. Did he just hear right? "What do you mean that you lost me?"

"Keith," Shiro paused for a moment with a sigh. "When I was carrying you and we were almost out of the tunnels, you stopped breathing and your heart stopped beating. You died."

"I died?" Keith repeated.

He didn't know how to absorb this new information. He thought hard about it. He didn't survive the ordeal, he had died. But he was brought back. Suddenly a little inkling of a memory slithered it's way back into his mind. He remembered feeling an acceptance for death. That's when Keith realised that he didn't just die; he was prepared to die as well. He honestly did not know if that fact was more surprising or frightening.

"Then how am I alive right now?" Keith asked.

"If Coran and Allura hadn't come prepared for the possibility of it happening, then you would have stayed dead," Shiro's face was the most serious that Keith had ever seen it. "Luck doesn't even come close to explaining it."

Keith finally understood why Shiro had been so reluctant about training that morning. It all started to make some sense. Keith had to take in a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Does anyone else know?" Keith asked, but deep down he already knew the answer to that question.

"Lance overheard when I was discussing it with Allura earlier today." Shiro admitted.

Keith sighed, realising that it was why Lance was so erratic at training. Suddenly his uncharacteristic behaviour made sense. Twice he had saved Lance against the creature and he died as a result. He didn't have to be close with Lance to know that it would have been tearing him up inside.

"I need to talk to him." Keith was almost out of the room, but he paused at the doorway. "Thank you for telling me."

Keith knew that Shiro didn't have to tell him, but he did. He understood why Shiro didn't tell him earlier and Keith was grateful that he had that small piece of obliviousness for a while. Because it wasn't every day that he found out that he had died.

* * *

Keith ended up having a bit of a run around the castle trying to find Lance. Keith first checked his room, but he was nowhere to be found. He heard commotion in the kitchen, but after peeking around the corner he found out that it was just Pidge and Hunk.

Hunk appeared to be cooking something whilst Pidge was on a holographic touch-screen.

"Has anyone seen Lance?" Keith approached the two.

Without giving an answer, Hunk just pushed a bowl of a pink sludge into Keith's hands along with what looked like a spoon.

"Keith, mix this please!" Hunk turned back to cutting up, what Keith suspected to be a plant from Zilate.

"I asked him to grab some of the tech I've been working on that's near the hangers on the other side of the castle. He shouldn't be too long," Pidge replied to Keith's question, not looking from her touch screen. "And if you don't want him to avoid you, you should probably just wait here for him. That way he can't evade you and you can talk to him."

Pidge and Hunk wanted for Keith to be able to talk to Lance. After how Pidge saw how upset he was earlier that day, she wanted to do everything she could to help him. When Pidge had told Hunk about the state Lance was in, the two made a pact that if Lance and Keith didn't talk by the end of that day, then they would plot together to make it happen. They knew that only way Lance could get out of his muck was to talk to Keith.

Keith decided to listen to Pidge's suggestion.

"Ok." Keith replied as he stared unsurely at the bowls contents inelegantly began to stir the mixture. Pidge glanced up from her holo-pad and let out a small laugh.

"Keith, is that what you call mixing?" Pidge began to smile.

"I'm distracted by how weird it looks." Keith defended.

"I wasn't making fun of you. Whenever I would bake, my brother would help me out and you kinda mix the bowl like he used to." Pidge continued to smile.

Hunk chimed into the conversation.

"Did your brother mix like an old grandma, Pidge? No offence, Keith."

Keith almost laughed, but he instead continued to listen to Pidge and Hunk as they began to bicker.

"Matt had little to no cooking ability. He was hopeless. And what kind of grandma mixes like that?" Pidge remarked.

"Mine does," Hunk laughed. "But that's because she's old, not because she sucks at cooking like your brother. My grandma is the queen of baking chocolate-brownie cookies. She'd send them to me every once in a while back at the Garrison."

"You're making me miss chocolate," Pidge frowned. "Wait; is this the cookie that Lance was freaking out about around New Year?"

Hunk looked guilty.

"I only had one extra with me and we weren't really friends back then, otherwise I would have offered."

Pidge shook her head at him.

"You have betrayed my trust." Pidge jokingly looked upset with him.

Hunk just laughed.

"Around Christmas time she makes about four batches worth," Hunk explained. "One day when we head back to Earth, I'll make sure to share them with you."

It was while he listened to that conversation that something inside him just clicked. The talk of family all sounded very familiar, but Keith knew that it wasn't Pidge's or Hunk's he could recall hearing about.

 _When we go back to Earth, the first thing you're doing is coming with me to meet my family._

It was Lance's voice.

The bowl slipped from his hands and Keith watched as it seemingly fell in slow-motion.

His mind suddenly felt like it was fast-forwarding through a film he had seen before. What Pidge and Hunk were talking about became the final push. It was the final connection that he had been missing. His memories slammed back into him all at once. Sounds and emotions were finally attached to images. The final pieces fell into place.

It wasn't that he could remember them clearly, it was like looking back through a cracked lens, but it was enough. It all returned in the correct chronological order. Some of his memories didn't make much sense, but then again, he was in and out of consciousness for the most part due to the blood loss. The last thing he remembered was feeling like someone had lit a fire in his chest before he felt his body become ice cold and he could hear someone's voice calling his name. Keith had no doubt that the final memory was the last memory he retained before he died.

After what felt like an eternity, the bowl finally smashed against the ground, drawing Keith out of his reminiscent state.

Keith ended up gasping for air. He didn't know how he was so air starved, but he must have been holding his breath. He could vaguely hear how Hunk and Pidge were asking if he was okay. As he caught his breath, he ran one hand through his hair.

"I need to find Lance." Keith suddenly said.

"What? Hold up for a second, what just happened?" Hunk frantically asked.

"I remember!" Keith exclaimed.

"What!?" Pidge asked. "How?"

"I don't know exactly, but it just hit me," Keith slowly replied. "I've gotta find Lance. I need to talk to him now."

Keith bolted out of the kitchen and down into the hall. Pidge and Hunk just exchanged a confused glance at one another. They had no idea what just happened. One minute Keith was quiet and the next he suddenly remembered. It was a weird day.

* * *

Keith just went running without even watching where he was going. He went to turn the corner but he collided into something and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with whatever he had collided with being an arm's length away from him.

"What the—Keith?"

It was then that Keith realised that he had collided with Lance.

"Lance!"

Keith immediately grabbed Lance by his wrist and dragged him into the nearest room with a door.

"Wait—Keith, what are you doing!?"

Keith ignored Lance and threw him in and closed the door behind them. They were in the observation deck. Lance placed down Pidge's back from his shoulder and raised his hands half way past his head.

"Do you want to fight or something? Are you still mad about what I said before? Because I'm—"

"I know." Keith cut him off.

Lance blinked at him.

"What?"

"I died and you blame yourself because of it."

Lance's face fell and his face back hardened. He turned away from Keith and took a few steps toward the glass, facing the stars.

"Shiro told you." It was a statement rather than a question. Lance already knew the answer.

Keith nodded, "Yes."

"And obviously he told you that I knew." Lance dug his hands into his pockets. "It's my fault. I'm not going to be surprised if you want payback because of that."

Lance sank down and sat, not looking at Keith and continuing to look out to the stars.

Keith confusedly stared at Lance.

"Why would I want payback? It's not your fault."

"Yes it is." Lance replied.

"No, it's not." Keith began to grow agitated. Lance could hear the growing agitation in Keith's voice.

"It is!"

"It isn't!"

"Why are we even fighting about this?" Lance threw his arms up into the air, turning to look at Keith. "How would you even know!? You don't even remember!"

"Actually I do!" Keith yelled.

Lance's agitated expression disappeared and he stared at Keith with his eyes wide.

"What?"

"You heard me," Keith lowed his voice and his face softened. "I remember."

Lance sighed, looking away from Keith. All of Lance's effort in trying to keep it from Keith had been for nothing because he ended up remembering one day later anyway.

 _Wow. I really can't do anything right._ Lance mentally scoffed at himself.

"When did you remember?" Lance asked, looking back out to the stars.

Keith made his way next to Lance and he sat beside him as he answered the question.

"I've been remembering pieces for a while, but it all came back to me when I was just in the kitchen with Pidge and Hunk. Most of it just rushed back then."

The two sat in silence for a moment before Keith started talking again.

"Listen. My brief death was not your fault and you need to know that and accept it."

Lance slowly nodded in response, but he could still feel guilt looming over him. But it did make him feel marginally better by knowing that Keith didn't blame him even though he could have.

"I'm glad we've cleared that up, but there's still something I don't understand," Keith turned his head toward Lance, "You were avoiding me before Shiro told you that I died. So what else is bothering you?"

Lance finally gained the audacity to look Keith in the eyes. It was the first time he held eye contact with him since they last argued, but this time he managed to hold it down.

"Why did you save me?" Lance decided to clarify the question to be specific, "You shielded me from the creature's stinger and then you decided to play the hero and sacrifice yourself. I want to know why."

Keith stretched out and stared at the ground, thinking carefully about his answer.

"I can't really explain the first time," Keith confessed. "I saw the stinger coming towards you and I just acted on it. All I knew is that I needed to stop the stinger from hurting you. There wasn't time to think."

Lance had to remind himself that Keith was chosen as the red paladin due to his reliance on instinct. He realised that this was an example of why he was chosen. Lance continued to listen carefully.

"And what about the whole sacrifice stunt?" Lance asked.

Keith shifted his position uncomfortably. He knew the answer to that question, but he just wasn't sure if Lance was ready to hear it. However under the circumstance of finally talking to one another that wasn't resulting in an argument, he decided to be truthful.

"I knew I was dying, I could feel it. All I could do was rely on my instincts and they told me that despite what would happen to me, I needed to protect you. I knew what I was doing and I don't regret that decision."

"You have to stop that!" Lance suddenly exclaimed.

Keith flinched, startled at Lance's sudden raise in volume. Keith furrowed his eyebrows.

"Doing what?"

"Talking like that!" Lance explained. "You're talking like you have a death wish,"

"It's not that I don't value my life or that I have nothing to lose, it's just that I have less to lose," Keith explained himself, "You have a family. You have people that you love who are waiting for you back on Earth. I wasn't just going to let you get hurt and die. You have too much to lose. And I….I don't."

Lance stared at Keith and sighed. He understood. Behind Keith's tone there was the slightest tone of envy. The roles had been reversed. He had always envious of Keith, but in that moment the tables had been turned. Lance lowered his voice and he became more serious than before.

"Just because I have my family waiting for me it doesn't make your life any less than mine."

"That's not how I see it," Keith said it with such resolve that it was almost frightening.

Lance sighed.

"I thought all you cared about is Voltron and saving the universe," Lance attempted to coax an answer. "Why am I so important all of a sudden?"

Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance.

"That's a stupid question," Keith replied. "Last time I checked, you're a part of Voltron and the universe."

Lance almost laughed.

"I don't know whether to take that as a joke or not."

"I'm being serious," Keith's expression was deadpanned. "You are the blue paladin. You have an affinity for blasters along with a quick wit. You have strategic mind of a true fighter pilot. And we wouldn't be able to form Voltron without you because you are essential to this team."

Lance was speechless. It was more the sincerity of Keith's tone that really got to him. Not that Lance would ever admit to it, but he really did admire Keith, and hearing something like that from someone he admired, well, words could not explain the surprise or the odd feeling of content welling within him. It's not that his own doubts about his abilities completely vanished, but any negative thought in that moment disappeared.

"And what, you're just replaceable?" Lance countered back.

Keith shook his head.

"I'm not saying that. It's just like I said before, I have less to lose."

"And just like I said before, you have to stop talking like that, or at least stop thinking like that," Lance nudged Keith with shoulder, "Do you think we'd be able to form Voltron without you piloting red? Because I don't think so, Mr Broody-Pants,"

Keith crinkled his nose in disgust at the new nickname. He slowly turned his head to face Lance. The same expression of disgust was still plastered on his face.

" _Mr Broody-Pants_ , really? I didn't know that your name calling could get any lamer, but you always seem to prove me wrong."

"I guess proving you wrong is what I do best," Lance started to smirk as Keith rolled his eyes.

"You might want to watch that inflated ego of yours."

"Hey, who just called me a smart and awesome pilot?" Lance mocked.

"You know what, I take it back. You still fly like a cargo pilot." Keith did not hold any bite behind his words, he was just joking.

"That hurts me," Lance faked a hurt expression. "That cuts deep."

"Wasn't it you that said that as a friend that it would make you entitled to make fun of the other?"

Lance let out a snort.

"Actually what I said was that as your friend that _I_ am entitled to make fun of you. I never said anything about you, Mullet." Lance remarked.

The two boys collapsed into small chuckles of laughter at one another. Lance hardly ever heard Keith laugh. The laugh itself wasn't too special, but it was Keith's infectious smile that really stood out. It was something that Lance actually found himself wanting to see more of (not that he would admit that).

When the laughter calmed down, Lance found himself still smiling, but also becoming quite serious again.

"I hope you know that I meant what I said back in those tunnels," Lance glanced back over to Keith. "When we get back to Earth, you're coming with me to see my family."

Keith recalled the promise, but he honestly didn't think that Lance would remember. Keith assumed it was one of those 'in the heat of the moment' types of decisions. He didn't want Lance to feel obliged to do it.

"Lance, you don't have to-"

"I know that I don't have to," Lance interrupted. "I want to."

Keith couldn't stop a lopsided grin from appearing on his face.

"Besides," Lance continued. "I think they'll want to meet the person that has saved my life multiple times."

Keith let out a breath and smiled.

"Ok. I can't argue you with." Keith gave in once again and decided to accept Lance's offer.

"Who knows, I may even get even with you and be the one to save your sorry behind."

Keith rolled his eyes, letting out a small huff of laughter. Lance's smile gradually vanished and he grew serious once more.

"Just promise me one thing," Lance got Keith's undivided attention. "Please just….just…."

Lance did not know how to word it properly; he had to think about it for a moment. Lance looked him dead in the eye and he spoke his mind.

"Keith, to everyone here, you mean something. You may not have a family back on Earth, but you have one up here."

Normally Lance would have felt embarrassed with such a confession, but with Keith gaping at him, he felt himself telling more and more of what he felt was the truth.

"We're all a team up here," Lance proclaimed. "And this team is a lot like a family. So please, don't act like your life is worth less than ours."

Keith stared at Lance, in fact, he didn't even blink. Keith just stared at his like he was frozen. Lance was getting worried for a moment, but then Keith began to open his mouth. He was about to say something, but he just closed his mouth as soon as he opened it.

Lance McClain had just left Keith Kogane speechless. It was something he never thought he'd ever do, but it happened anyway. Keith slowly and eventually just nodded in response. There was nothing he could think to say to that. Keith wanted to say something with gratitude, but he thought that it wouldn't be the appropriate response.

Keith cared about everyone in the castle, but it wasn't until hearing what Lance said that he realised that he did consider them family. Keith didn't know what it was like to have a family until Lance had just confirmed it for him. He cared about them and their happiness, even above his own, and that was how people felt for family, right?

Shiro was his family. Allura was his family. Coran was his family. Pidge was his family. Hunk was his family. Lance was his family.

It was bond over blood. His friends were his family. He couldn't answer Lance about how he instinctually protected him from the creature's stinger, but then in that moment he just knew. Keith knew that people would go to great extremes to protect their families, even with their own lives. But never once did he consider that he had protected Lance because of that reason until then.

"Keith? You're kinda freaking me out there, buddy."

"I understand." Keith mumbled the reply. Lance didn't quite catch the reply, but at least Keith was still functioning.

Lance stood up, cracking his back and stretching.

"Okay. I'm glad we had this talk, but I think there's been enough sitting for one day. I'm going to deliver Pidge's tech."

Lance grabbed the bag and started to walk away with his free hand resting on his hip. As Lance walked away Keith stood up from the floor. He stared out through the glass of the ship. The stars looked especially bright all of a sudden.

Lance paused near the door way, turning his head back to Keith.

"Are you coming, or what?"

Keith wordlessly took up the offer and caught up to Lance. The two sauntered down the hall side by side together in a comfortable silence.

There was no doubt that they had their differences. Their personalities were like fire and ice. But in that moment, there was only peace between them. Would that peace last forever? Probably not. But what truly was remarkable was that the two finally understood each other better and they had a great respect for one another.

And maybe, just maybe, it was the beginning of something new.

* * *

 **The End...for now.**

 **I plan on making some more one-shot and story installments that follow the events of this story that will begin to develop Lance and Keith together.**

 **Any comments or questions, comment below and let me know!**

 **I'll see you guys next time.**


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